Coal giant Drummond has donated $1 million to a relief fund for Colombians affected by the winter rains, financial publication Dinero reported Wednesday.
The president of Drummond, Augusto Jimenez, officially handed the money to Colombia Humanitaria, the presidential fund which offers assistance to victims of the severe rains which ravaged the country at the end of 2010.
Maria Clemencia Rodriguez de Santos, wife of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, was there to receive the donation. The first lady said, “Many of our compatriots, as well as having lost their loved ones, have also lost their possessions, homes, and places of education.”
In a Drummond press statement it was suggested that the donated funds be used to support the education sector in the departments of Sucre and Magdalena in the north of Colombia.
The Alabama-based energy giant is facing two lawsuits in the United States for the deaths of trade unionists and small-scale farmers in the department of Cesar.