By Our Reporter
On Tuesday, MTN Uganda donated computers and a WiFi router and a multi-purpose printer to the Nakawa Market vendors Association as it concluded its staff volunteerism campaign dubbed 21 Days of Y’ello Care, which also doubled as the MTN Y’ello Care Day across the MTN footprint.
Similarly, an MTN staff team in Mbarara also reached out to the Bunusya Abarema Twetungungure association in Mbarara on the same day, with a donation of goats, fencing materials, and farm inputs as well as a digital training session to support the group of farmers on their path to recovery following the disruptive Covid-19 pandemic, as part of the same campaign.
The annual campaign that is always executed within the first 21 days of June, was this year held under the theme: “Empowering Communities to Drive Economic Recovery” with a keen focus on digital skills training and digital job creation to spur economic recovery among disadvantaged communities that were adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The digital upskilling aspect of the campaign is hinged on MTN’s strategic priority to build digital skills for digital jobs in alignment to the company’s Ambition 2025 Strategy.
Dorcas Batwala Muhwezi, the MTN Uganda General Manager, Customer experience reaffirmed that it was heart-warming for the staff of MTN Uganda to once again dedicate their time, financial resources, and skills, to the communities in a bid to uplift them socio-economically, following the drastic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Our decision of empowering communities to drive economic recovery after Covid-19 through digital training, upskilling, and knowledge sharing will indeed create lasting and sustainable change in our communities”, Muhwezi said adding that the recovery packages donated by MTN Uganda to all the groups will go a long way in positively impacting their respective enterprises.
Representing the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, Fred Kitoogo, the Principal of the Uganda Institute of Information Technology Communication lauded MTN for fostering digital inclusion among the grassroots communities.
“A lot of the economic transformation that we seek as a country can only be realized if we narrow the digital gap in our country. As such, I thank MTN for deliberately equipping the disadvantaged communities with digital skills that shall go a long way in supporting their economic endeavours,” Kitoogo said.
Under this year’s 21 Days of Y’ello Care, MTN Uganda has reached out to a total of 10 communities including the Tesobar Deaf Carpentry group in Lira, Tubalera VTC deaf carpentry group in Jinja, Tweyombeke disabled group in Fort portal, the Bunyusa group in Mbarara, the Kamwokya I women tailoring group in the Kampala central division, the glorious widows’ group in Makindye, the Rays of Hope entrepreneurship group in Kawempe, Missionaries of the poor orphanage in Mengo as well as the Nakawa Market Vendors’ Association in Nakawa division.
All the groups underwent digital upskilling training sessions delivered by MTN staff, to help them harness the power of digital usage to bolster their economic activities through various digital channels that resonate with the current digital era.
To commemorate the MTN Y’ello care day, MTN Uganda held a series of digital training sessions targeting at least 300 participants in a bid to further close the imminent digital gap, as envisioned in MTN’s ambition 2025. Over 700 people have been equipped with digital skills under the MTN Y’ello care campaign this year.
In addition to the digital training sessions, MTN also organized 4 crash courses in financial resilience, corporate structure soap making, and backyard farming as a way of driving that much-needed economic tenacity and recovery.
The MTN team also engaged in a community cleaning session before handing over assorted items to support the Nakawa market vendors’ group in their economic activities.
Launched in 2007, 21 Days of Y’ello care is a global award-winning staff initiative that has seen MTN staff step out of their offices every year, to make a difference in the lives of the communities within which they work.