To enhance the Christmas and New Year celebrations for their Christian employees who worked during the holiday season, Asian Agri, founded by Sukanto Tanoto, distributed a total of 885 Christmas packages on 23 December to various villages surrounding Asian Agri operations in North Sumatra.
Tanah Datar Gardens received 150 packages, Gunung Melayu received 185 packages, Rantau Sinar Karsa received 150 packages and Tanjung Selamat received 200 packages. The village communities of Gonting Malaha, Desa Batu Anam and Sidomulyo received 185 packages. These packages each contained 5 kg of rice, 1.5 kg of sugar and 1 bottle of syrup.
During the gift giving ceremony, one of the pastors in the village of Gonting Malaha expressed his thanks to the companies for caring about the Christian community in the Gonting Malaha village where every year Asian Agri and RGE share the love and joy of Christmas, and hand out gifts to the employees.
Asian Agri is a subsidiary of the Royal Golden Eagle group of companies founded in 1973 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Sukanto Tanoto. In 2001, the Tanoto Foundation was officially established in Singapore by Sukanto Tanoto, his wife and their children as a way of giving back to the community and country by improving lives through education, empowerment and improving quality of life.
As someone who was unable to complete his formal education himself, Sukanto Tanoto believes that everyone should have the basic right to be educated, and through having established the Tanoto Foundation he is able to support rural schools as well as hand out scholarships to students to help them to complete their education.
By collaborating with their corporate partners April Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd (APRIL) and Asian Agri, the Tanoto Foundation is able to provide a better quality of life to many inhabitants in numerous villages surrounding RGE operation sites.