Vodafone Raises Over Inr 10 Million For Educate Girls

Vodafone India one of India’s leading telecommunications service providers, raised more than INR 10 million to facilitate education of over 47,000 out-of-school girls through Giving Championships campaign run by Vodafone Foundation. Over 12,000 Vodafone India employees along with their family and friends participated to raise funds for 8 weeks for NGO partner Educate Girls to enable young girls (6-14 years) in Ajmer, Bundi and Rajsamand districts in Rajasthan to go back to school for one academic year.

The Giving Championships bolster the ‘World of Difference’ (WOD) program in India, a flagship initiative run by the Vodafone Foundation globally. In its third season in India, the WOD program had 33 highly skilled Vodafone employees, identified after a rigorous selection process, working with 29 NGOs for a period of 8 weeks to address women related issues in India. WOD taps into the skills, expertise and passion of employees and enables them to take time out from their regular jobs and work for a charity of their choice. The employees continue to receive their salary and all related benefits from Vodafone India throughout the WOD Program.

Handing over the contribution cheque, Marten Pieters, Managing Director and CEO, Vodafone India said, “The Giving Championships is the Vodafone way of supporting the commendable work being done by select colleagues participating in the World of Difference program. All our employees participated to raise funds this year to support the common cause of educating girls. I am especially delighted that our collective efforts have helped in substantially surpassing the target of supporting 30,000 girls that we had set for ourselves and we will be sending thousands of more young girls back to school.”

Receiving the cheque, Educate Girls, Founder and Executive Director Safeena Husain said, “It is indeed very heartening to have a corporation of Vodafone’s stature support Educate Girls. Vodafone Foundation’s World of Difference program has helped Educate Girls Immensely with fundraising and capacity building at the field level. Vodafone’s contribution will go a long way as Educate Girls attempts to impact 7,500 schools and almost 1 million children in the underserved gender gap districts of Rajasthan.”

Highlighting the program’s success, Rohit Adya, Director External Affairs, Vodafone India said “This year, the Giving Championships in just over a month has achieved strong numbers. Vodafone’s robust network of 454 exclusive retail stores also raised funds and created awareness about girl child education through the sale of special school-themed ZooZoo and Zumi merchandise. I am pleased that through our combined efforts, we were able to successfully raise a record amount.”

Speaking on the occasion, Dhaval Udani, CEO of GiveIndia, that provided the fundraising platform for the Giving Championships, said, “Congratulations to Vodafone for running one of the largest fund raising campaigns in Corporate India by creatively engaging its employees, customers and its various stakeholders. GiveIndia is proud to partner on this initiative through our fundraising expertise and donation platform as Vodafone’s charity partner. We aimed to significantly go beyond the target that Vodafone set for itself and were happy to go well beyond that. ”

Vodafone is committed to contributing to society with a strong belief that what is good for Society is also good for business. Through its Foundation which focuses primarily on Women Empowerment, the Giving Championships will enable girls to access education for one year. Vodafone wishes all the girls a successful life ahead.

About
Vodafone Foundation

Mobilizing the community, mobilizing social change. The Vodafone Foundation in India recognizes the power of mobile technology to address some of India’s most pressing challenges relating to education, health, equality and access. We are committed to enable people and technology to drive innovation, disseminate knowledge, and create shared value to improve lives.

By leveraging our mobile technology in the four areas of m-women, m-education, m-health and m-agriculture, we work in partnership with key charities, development agencies and the community to drive social change on a large scale in India. As part of our social investment program, the Vodafone Foundation in India also focusses on disaster relief and implements the World of Difference program, an unique employee engagement.

In countries in which Vodafone operates, a unique footprint of 27 Vodafone Foundations operate to deliver our social investment program. These programs are directed and chosen by the Foundation Trustees and receive funding from the Vodafone Foundation in the UK as well as their local Vodafone company.

Give India

Give India is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping donors donate to credible, transparent NGOs. It’s a ‘philanthropy exchange’ that does a thorough due diligence on NGOs of a wide range of causes for the donors to choose and donate.

Give India offers a range of 10 causes, 200+ NGOs and 750+ donation options. Every donor gets a feedback report informing them on how their donation has been utilized. Give India does this at a cost of fundraising of 9.1% which is one of the lowest in the world against an average of 30-50% in this sector. Give India has channelled Rs. 200 Crores to NGOs since inception through their platform. The mission of Give India is to propagate the culture of giving.

Twitter: #educategirls @vodafoneIN_Fdtn #vodafone