The Company views child support as its top priority that is reflected in all of its current programs: charity, sponsorship programs, children and youth sports and cultural promotion programs. Social investments into human capital seem to be the most relevant given the current conditions. The Company is seeking to use a balanced approach by supporting both the children who are less privileged compared to their peers due to the unfavorable family environment or due to some physical or mental challenges, and those from problem-free homes, helping them develop their inborn abilities and talents.

The Company has been sponsoring a number of orphanages in Western Siberia, the Komi Republic, Volgograd, Astrakhan, Leningrad, Kirov, Vologda, Saratov, Kaliningrad Oblasts, Perm Krai and other regions for more than 20 years now. It is through this program that children from over 70 orphanages and foster homes receive support from the Company, its subsidiaries and the LUKOIL Charity Fund. The Company helps their graduates receive education, improve their overall health, choose a profession and find their place in life. Given the children's limited opportunities due to lack of parental care, not only does the Company allocate funds to maintain the facilities of specialized child care institutions, but also seeks to become directly involved in the children’s lives, by ensuring that they adjust to the social environments in which they will find themselves after they leave their orphanage or foster home. The Company sponsors children’s annual holidays to the seaside, and educational tourist trips across the country and purchases New Year's presents for all of the children.

Each year, the Company purchases New Year's presents for all of the children from LUKOIL-sponsored orphanages. For example, in 2011 orphanages received digital photo and video cameras, TVs, winter sports equipment, sports uniforms and gym suits, sets of educational games, desktop computers and laptops.  A high school in Vyazovka settlement, Saratov Oblast, received a GAZ 322-121 automobile as a present.

Through its involvement the Company does its best to ease the lives of children who were deprived of parental care. Not only does implementation of charity programs help improve the quality of their lives, but it also paves the way for a full-fledged independent life and a wise choice of the profession. Most graduates from specialized child care institutions continue their education in secondary and higher education institutions. For example, in 2009 out of 22 graduates of orphanages and foster homes sponsored by the Company, 18 entered specialized secondary education institutions and four entered higher education institutions. In 2010 nearly 100 percent entered higher schools. Fifty-two out of fifty-five graduates of these orphanages became students of higher education and specialized secondary education institutions, and three of them started to work for living.

Orphanage graduates are awarded scholarships and educational opportunity grants in order to attend specialized secondary education and higher education institutions. At the present time, the Company pays for about 80 scholarships to former residents of orphanages and foster homes who are attending higher education institutions. Those include the Kirov Branch of the Moscow State Law Academy, Kirov Agricultural Academy, Mari, Astrakhan, Vyatka and Surgut State Universities, Perm State Teachers' Training University, Vyatka State Agricultural Academy, M.I. Glinka State Conservatory in Nizhny Novgorod, Dobrolyubov State Linguistic University in Nizhny Novgorod, Tyumen State Oil and Gas University, etc. Some recent graduates attend teachers’ training higher education institutions in Surgut, Cherepovets and Perm. One of the former residents, following her graduation from a teachers' training institution, returned to her own orphanage to work.

In 2008, the LUKOIL Charity Fund and LUKOIL Group’s organizations operating in Astrakhan Oblast implemented a project focusing on the formation of the young talent pool among orphanage residents and children from economically disadvantaged families in the Oblast. A large business project launched in the region revealed a severe shortage of technicians and engineers. To address this problem, best orphanage residents and children from economically disadvantaged families were provided an opportunity to attend specialized secondary and higher education institutions. Today the Astrakhan Polytechnic College and the Volga-Caspian Fishery Complex provide training to more than 20 such individuals. The fund is covering all education and accommodation costs. After graduation, they will be employed by OAO LUKOIL’s enterprises operating in the region.

In Nizhny Novgorod Oblast the Company provides assistance to the Kstov Petroleum Vocational School which, without limitation, provides training to the patronized orphanage residents, thus implementing its integrated program of social adaptation of children who have found themselves in a stressful life situation. The school’s students make regular visits to LUKOIL-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery where they get to know firsthand how the enterprise is run and acquire hands-on expertise by talking to experts there.

In 2010-2011 the LUKOIL Charity Fund implemented two projects in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast focusing on the socialization of orphanage residents and furthering their independence.

The “We've Found Talents” project is intended to help talented foster children from 13 to 16 discover and develop their talents. The boys and girls have mastered the basic knowledge in the disciplines of sketching/drawing, painting, and composition, and learned the basics of fine art and its history. The Final Exhibition of Children's Drawings in the Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum held in October 2011 became the most emotionally moving event for members of the project, which was attended by OAO LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Governor Valery Shantsev. The most striking and brightest children's drawings were used to create OOO LUKOIL-Volganefteprodukt’s corporate calendar.

Another project is being implemented as part of the well-known journalistic festival “Live Word” held annually in Boldino. Within this three-day period, workshops by professional journalists, broadcasters, writers and linguists are held. In 2010-2011 its participants for the first time ever included orphanage residents for whom a special educational and entertainment program was held. Many of them then get certificates for free training at the “Praktika” Center, which is a school that produces certified journalists.  

Another example of occupational guidance is the Company’s cooperation with the Komi Republic’s unique A.A. Katolikov Agricultural Foster Home, whose graduates in addition to secondary education become qualified professionals: boys become tractor drivers, and girls become horticulturists. The children acquire both theoretical and hands-on knowledge: the agricultural school has an in-house farm with 227 hectares of land, greenhouses, a poultry farm, and a cattle-breeding farm. Similar practices are followed in the Veliky Ustug orphanage, which has a farm and some land. There the children learn to work and prepare for living on their own. The Company is sponsoring maintenance of this farm and procurement of potato harvesting equipment.

The Company provides an active support to orphanages and foster homes in the traditional area of LUKOIL’s oil production operations, such as West Siberia. For over 15 years support has been provided to the “Belchonok” (Little Squirrel) Aid Center for children left without parental care and the Ishim Orphanage that was awarded the status of a family care orphanage back in the early 90s. The everyday life of these children is like in a family: each apartment with kitchens, bedrooms and lounges is occupied by a family of 10-12 children and a teacher.

Child support programs place a lot of emphasis on the problems of children with disabilities. Since 1993 the Company has been supporting a unique West Siberian rehabilitation center called “Anastasia” for physically challenged children and adolescents. It was awarded the status of a regional research platform for innovation. The work resulted in the creation of an optimal rehabilitation center and the development of proposals to improve the regulatory framework for the services provided to physically-challenged children by three governmental agencies (education, healthcare, and social security). To meet the Center's needs the Company purchases state-of-the-art and sometimes unique equipment that helps improve the health of children with respiratory and vegetovascular diseases and pays for the treatment of hearing and speech-impaired children. The Perm Krai’s institutions supported by the Company include the Children’s Public Organization for Persons Disabled Since Childhood and the Kungur Public Organization of Disabled Children and Orphans called “Dobrotoliubiye” (Philokalia). 

Over the past few years, the project called “A Book for Every Blind Child” has been implemented as part of the larger program entitled “Illustrated Books for Little Blind Children”. In the opinion of medical specialists, embossed books play an important role in making children familiar with the surrounding world. They introduce the little ones to the children’s literary classics, help children visualize the outside world, acquire the necessary knowledge and promote balanced personality development. Over this period of time the Charity Fund gave more than 65 illustrated editions to specialized child care institutions in the Republic of Komi, Volgograd, Astrakhan, Rostov-on-Don, Kaliningrad, Vologda, Nizhny Novgorod Oblasts, Perm Krai, Saint Petersburg, Kogalym, Langepas and Urai. In 2011, Kazan’s special child care institutions received these books.

The LUKOIL Charity Fund sponsors annual summer holidays at the Black Sea coast for children from Kirov, Kstovo, Ishim, Nizhny Novgorod, Leningrad Oblast, Perm Krai, Astrakhan and Volgograd Oblasts orphanages and foster homes. In addition, children from foster homes take educational tourist trips across the country. 

The Company continuously allocates considerable resources to repair foster homes, organize children's playgrounds and athletic fields, and acquire the necessary equipment. For example, in 2011 Kirov’s orphanage No. 1 “Nadezhda” received support in the construction of a children’s “car city” on its premises, while Langepas’ rehabilitation center “Anastasia” received a balneal bath and outdoor furniture for the summer holidays of children with disabilities.

Not only does the Company take care of the health, welfare and social development of orphans and disabled children, but it also places a strong focus on the cultural and spiritual education of the younger generation of Russian citizens. The Company has come up with a good tradition of combining tourist trips with educational and development activities. For example, LUKOIL organized educational activities and tours for orphanage and social shelter residents coinciding with mobile art exhibitions arranged by the Moscow Kremlin Museums. Such art exhibitions were held in Perm, Nizhny Novgorod and Volgograd. The exhibitions included lectures and sightseeing activities under the supervision of teachers employed by the Moscow Kremlin Museums. After the introductory lecture and sightseeing activities the “We Draw the Kremlin” artistic contest was held, and the winners were invited to visit Moscow. Their works were displayed at the children’s art exhibition in the halls of the Armory and the Moscow Kremlin Museums.

The Company backed the initiative of I.A. Antonova, Head of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, and took part in the establishment of the Aesthetic Education Center for Children and Youth under the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. This Center includes everything necessary to introduce children to various art forms, help them reveal their creative potential and acquire theoretical and hands-on knowledge. The Company is very mindful of the young generation’s moral education. We have been providing assistance to the first ecclesiastical educational institution in the city of Urai, Tyumen Oblast, and for some years have sponsored the Perm Orthodox Classical School.

The Company’s subsidiaries are also engaged in the ongoing child-oriented charity programs. In Perm Krai, for example, we are implementing a large-scale project entitled “From LUKOIL to Children!” The celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the first oil production in the Perm region included the handover of 12 school buses to education institutions located in the areas of LUKOIL-PERM’s operations. As part of the initiative “Drive Cautiously – Children Around!” implemented jointly with the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate for Perm Krai and district authorities, thousands of Perm Krai's first-graders received such presents as schoolbags, the ABCs of traffic regulations, baseball caps and other school supplies from the oil professionals.

It has become a tradition that during the New Year season the Perm-based enterprises of LUKOIL Group in cooperation with the LUKOIL Charity Fund give away presents to more than 1,500 people, including orphanage residents and physically-challenged children.  Master painting classes by professional artists are held for them.  The event is widely supported by folk groups, people of arts, municipal and district authorities of the Krai, and the general public.

The “From LUKOIL to Children!” project included such events as “Children and LUKOIL for the Environment” and “Oil Worker's City - City of Flowers!" held by OOO LUKOIL-Perm, the Employment Agency for Perm Krai and municipal authorities. For more than two months teenagers from Krai’s 17 districts had been cleaning up children’s playgrounds, areas adjacent to monuments and churches, and planting trees and flowers.  Over 1,000 children aged 14 to 18 were employed during the event. Thus, they were not only engaged in environmental activities and developed an appreciation of their homeland's nature, but they also were able to get their first paycheck. Each of the participating districts developed its own mini-project according to the local specifics: “Waterfall Valley”, “Flower Symphony", “Church's Green Necklace”, “Blooming Town”, and “Young Hearts – Golden Hands”. The overall number of flowers, trees and bushes planted over two months exceeded 200 thousand, and 960 new flowerbeds were made. The teenagers cleaned 28 parks and public gardens, areas adjacent to 18 monuments, 9 museums, 8 churches, 18 waterside areas, over 56 children’s and sports playgrounds, and a dozen historic sites. The events were accompanied by educational activities targeting children and youth and highlighting environmental issues and the significance of preservation of Krai’s unique natural environment.  Best contributors to the “Children and LUKOIL for the Environment” received letters of commendation and prizes.

OOO LUKOIL-Perm jointly with Perm’s municipal authorities, the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications of the Government of Perm Krai, and Perm’s P.I. Tchaikovsky Academic Opera and Ballet Theater held a Krai-wide TV creativity contest titled “Formula for Success.” There were three categories of contest winners aged 5 to 14: instrumental performance, vocals, and artistic activities. The youngsters' best numbers were included into a gala concert broadcast on local television.

Thus, children who live in the areas of the Company’s presence are in one way or another engaged in our social investment programs. We seek to adjust them to modern life and get them personally involved in the Company’s social activities.