In Vietnam, one of the ways ConocoPhillips supports its community is through Operation Smile, which provides life-changing cleft lip and cleft palate surgery.

ConocoPhillips believes it has a responsibility for the safety, health and well-being of its employees and the communities in which we operate.

One way ConocoPhillips meets the social needs of communities around the globe is through local United Way organizations. About half the company’s donations to social service organizations are channeled through the United Way to strengthen communities worldwide. The rest is contributed directly to the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, community centers and other service organizations such as the Shunyi Orphanage outside Beijing, which houses approximately 30 children, many of whom are handicapped.

ConocoPhillips Vietnam has been recognized for its community service and contributions to the petroleum industry and economic development, including the Third Level Labor Medal from the President of Vietnam. We contributed $18,000 to support two separate Habitat for Humanity projects in Vietnam aimed at building new, much-needed residences for people from My Tho province in the Mekong River Delta. ConocoPhillips employees in Vietnam and their families helped with the construction of four “Love Houses” that were donated to the community’s neediest people.

ConocoPhillips donated $5 million to the Providence Alaska Foundation, with the single largest contribution directed to the Providence Cancer Center, a state-of-the-art facility in Anchorage created through the vision of previous Alaska cancer patients and their families. The Center provides local advanced cancer care with a special focus on meeting patients’ emotional and spiritual needs. The 45,000-square ft. facility offers a publicly accessible cancer resource center, the Susan Butcher Family Center, and patient navigators for one-on-one guidance.

In many instances, our employees have developed programs to educate local communities on safety, such as the Fire Safety House, which has taught more than a million schoolchildren across the United States how to protect themselves and their families from fire. ConocoPhillips supports the Smart Sparx Fire Reduction Program, a fire safety initiative implemented by the Australian Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Service to educate indigenous children in urban schools. It uses storytelling, songs, music, color, games, puzzles, DVDs, CDs and role-play hand puppets to communicate its fire safety messages to children.

In 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, ConocoPhillips donated approximately $1 million to the American Red Cross.

In developing countries, our efforts are directed toward such fundamental needs as clean water and good hygiene. In Southeast Asia, we partnered with WorldVision to construct two hydraulic water pumps in rural communities near Dili, Timor-Leste. Community members, women and children in particular, had traditionally fetched water by laboriously climbing steep slopes up to four times a day over relatively long distances. The two water pumps assist 1,650 people in the villages of Ferik-Katuas and Laulara by improving hygiene and supporting local agriculture, which in turn improves nutrition. Using very few moving parts, the pumps are powered by the momentum from flowing streams in the valleys. Villagers contributed to construction and installation.

ConocoPhillips also is one of the original supporters of the Alola Maternal and Child Health Program (Suko Hadomi Inan no Oan) in Timor-Leste. With one of the highest fertility rates in the world, the country has a high rate of maternal mortality, with 660 deaths per 100,000 live births. Almost all maternal deaths are preventable if high-quality health care is provided to pregnant women. This program delivers family planning, prenatal education, basic goods, and health practitioner-assisted births to thousands of women in Timor-Leste. Another key health initiative is promotion of the breastfeeding of infants, partly by encouraging the formation of Mothers’ Support Groups across the country.

For several years we have supported Operation Smile, a program that conducts surgeries on children with cleft lips and palates. The support of this program has helped fund operations on hundreds of children from Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces of Vietnam.