European Expert Commission gave Chairman of SUAL Holding JSC Viktor Wechselberg the international diploma for ‘Significant contribution to the successful realization of the international social partnership standards’. The diploma was given as a reward for such SUAL projects as Drug and Drink Addiction Prophylaxis and Rehabilitation and International Partnership in Decreasing Risks of AIDS/HIV; the company carries out these projects in Sverdlovsk Region, in cooperation with the National Peace Foundation (USA) and Institute of Gender and Social Politics. The projects are also supported by the management of the Holding’s member companies (Aluminum plant of Bogoslovsk, Ural Aluminum Plant, and Severouralsk bauxite mine).

The projects are aimed at developing the interdisciplinary cooperation of the target group (the addicted and their families) with the authorities, doctors, teachers, social workers, researchers, experts, business executives, non-profit organizations (universities, churches, municipal hospitals, rehabilitation centers) in order to create an efficient network. Thus, the preexposure prophylaxis center is now being created in Krasnoturinsk with the help of Ural State Technical University. In 2005, the university tried out a pilot project consisting in setting up a special chair for addiction specialists.

Another field the project by SUAL touch upon is making the non-governmental rehabilitation centers professional and certified. The company partly subsidizes two such centers in Sverdlovsk Region. One more field has to do with helping addiction specialists receive further training.

The projects had been initiated by Mothers Against Drugs, an NGO based in Severouralsk. It was originally named Local Community Against Drugs and was supported by SUAl in Severouralsk, Krasnoturinsk, Karpinsk, and Volchansk for 2 years.

‘We believe social responsibility does not end with the payment of taxes and decent wages; we just can’t stay indifferent to the problems in the areas the company’s plants are located and we deem it our duty to help solve them,’ said Mr Wechselberg.