By Our Reporter
MTN Foundation Uganda has received a Humanitarian Recognition award for the year 2021 from the Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS). The award comes as an acknowledgement of the MTN Foundation’s tremendous support towards the URCS’ lifesaving interventions in response to disasters among other emergencies.
The URCS Secretary General, Robert Kwesiga presented the award to the MTN Uganda General Manager, Enid Edroma, last week at the MTN headquarters in Kampala.
While handing over the award, Kwesiga thanked MTN for being a reliable partner to the URCS initiatives.
“We are honored to have a great humanitarian partner in MTN Foundation Uganda, which has unwaveringly supported us and the people of Uganda over the years. And for the last two years during the Covid-19 pandemic, they took their support several notches higher, something that enabled us to protect and save lives across the country,” Kwesiga said, “It is therefore with great pleasure that URCS presents this award to MTN Foundation Uganda,”
The award was in recognition of MTN Uganda Foundation’s response to complementing the government’s initiatives during national crises to save lives, working through URCS.
In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, MTN immediately worked through Uganda Red Cross and the Ministry of Health to support the high-risk areas such as Markets that remained open when the country was under lockdown. MTN Foundation Uganda collaborated with URCS to implement and enforce SOPs on COVID-19 prevention in 15 high traffic markets in Kampala metropolitan with funding totaling to 297,000,000/= for 3 months, thereby curbing the spread of the deadly virus and saving lives.
Additionally, MTN Foundation Uganda was recognised for being the first corporate entity to reach out to the people of Kasese, just a day after the deadly tragedy happened in 2020. The company donated 41,000,000ugx to support the delivery of 100 non-food relief kits to the affected families.
Furthermore, MTN Foundation Uganda was also hailed as the first company on the ground when Bundibugyo flooded in back in December 2019. In the same year still, MTN Foundation Uganda worked through URCS to reach out to the Bududa mudslide victims.
“We are so grateful to leadership of MTN Uganda and the technical team for always responding very fast whenever an emergency happens in the country, and most importantly, choosing to reach the affected families through the Uganda Red Cross Society,” Kwesiga said.
On behalf of the MTN Uganda Chief Executive Officer, Wim Vanhelleputte, Edroma expressed MTN’s profound gratitude towards URCS for the noble recognition award.
MTN is concerned about the welfare of the communities in which we operate, for our business can only thrive in thriving communities, hinged on our belief that we are good together. Edroma remarked.
“MTN was the first corporate company to pledge support to government and people of Uganda in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic with over 2Billion spent in various interventions to uplift communities from the pandemic effects in the last two years. We take such great honor in this award, and we remain committed to our duty as a corporate citizen,” Edroma added.
MTN Foundation is MTN’s Corporate Social Responsibility arm through which the Telecom executes its community initiatives to create impactful change across the country. Established in 2007, MTN Foundation Uganda has undertaken a plethora of initiatives in the areas of health, education, youth empowerment as well as key national priority areas through government and private partnerships.