Schou USA Funds Borneo Learning Centre

Furniture World Magazine

SCHOU USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Danish SCHOU Company, announced the creation of the SCHOU Learning Centre in Semporna, Borneo in Malaysia. The SCHOU-financed Learning Centre was established in cooperation with the Borneo Child Aid Society to create better living conditions for plantation children whose families live and work on Southeast Asian plantations. Unlike many children in Southeast Asia who have little education and few opportunities to learn a useful skill, the children of the new school will be given an education similar to that of Western society. The SCHOU Learning Centre will enroll 50 students, fully paid, every year for the next 50 years. “The activities of the SCHOU Learning Centre help ensure that these children receive a basic education and the chance for a better life,” says Christopher Curran, President of SCHOU USA. “We can help by making the right decisions on a local basis to help them achieve those goals, and part of that is opening up schools for them.” Chain of Custody SCHOU’s insistence on maintaining the highest social and ethical standards has a direct impact on the way it chooses to run its business. For example, SCHOU uses only plantation timbers from Indonesia in its hardwood teak furniture. The company’s chain-of-custody certification verifies that any piece of teak used to manufacture SCHOU furniture can be traced to the number of a seedling planted on a government-approved and monitored plantation in Indonesia. “SCHOU is proud to be doing its part, not only to preserve an important natural resource in the form of teak, but to give back and educate the young people,” Curran says. “We support these and other initiatives because we want SCHOU’s presence to exert a positive influence on human and environmental life around the globe.” About SCHOU COMPANY Established in 1963, the SCHOU Company is an organization with offices in and throughout the Scandinavia, European Union, Africa, China, and now the United States. SCHOU has over 5,000 different products for the home, 3700 distributors worldwide, only 85 of which are located in U.S. at the present time.