The curtain came down this weekend on 21 days of community work by MTN employees, which saw CEOs join hands with employees to volunteer their time, skills and resources to make a difference in communities across the MTN footprint, as part of the company’s annual staff volunteer programme, 21 Days of Y’ello Care.
For a third consecutive year, MTN employees came together under the theme of “Investing in Education for All”, with a special focus on the digitisation of teaching and learning.
Although the Y’ello Care period formally ended on Saturday, staff will continue giving their time to projects that require more than 21 days to complete. This includes the ICT training activity for women with disabilities in the Khartoum State of Sudan. The programme aims to benefit at least 91 disabled women, and will continue beyond the Y’ello Care period of 21 days, to reach over 800 disabled women.
Yvonne Mubiligi, Manager of MTN Rwanda Foundation says, “We supported 20 schools during the 21 days. Our employees led efforts to equip rural schools with desks, books and playground equipment for childhood development. Over 500 learners and 200 teachers in high schools benefited from ICT training offered by MTNers (MTN staff), in collaboration with the Rwanda Education Board. We also conducted training in cloud computing and virtualisation with university students across the country.”
MTN Rwanda staff also contributed over US$30 000 to support underprivileged pupils that have dropped out of school due to lack of funds.
As part of their activities, MTN staff in Zambia donated 10 computers and conducted computer literacy lessons with learners at primary schools in Lusaka’s Matero constituency.
“MTNers appreciate the challenges in our communities, and have gone on to suggest and provide solutions. Every year, they enthusiastically look forward to the Y’ello Care programme. Over the years, we have intervened in several projects, including the construction of infrastructure, renovations, the fight against malaria, skills development, and ICT capacity building in schools,” says Mwenzi Mulenga, General Manager for Corporate Services at MTN Zambia.
In Ghana, CEO Serame Taukobong and his executive team volunteered their services to design and sew school bags from old MTN banners and flexi materials. While some were sewing bags, other staff volunteers worked on the construction of a containerised e-library for a high school in Ningo.
MTN South Sudan hosted learners for a career fair, with a focus on creating awareness about the telecoms sector, particularly careers in technology.
“We want learners to get involved in technology at an early age, so that many can become engineers. The long-term goal is to build partnerships between schools and MTN, to raise the level of education,” says Khumbulani Dhlomo, Head of Corporate Affairs at MTN South Sudan.
In Cameroon, MTN staff went to the Manoka archipelago to do some bricklaying, manufacture blocks, concrete, and tracing. They also contributed to the raising of walls of the building that will house teachers of Manoka Bilingual High School, the only high school in the locality. Manoka has 24 islands and a population of 40 000 people. With students from various surrounding villages, 17 teachers are assigned to school, but only 5 go there once a week, as there’s no accommodation for them.
In South Africa, MTN management services employees handed over a refurbished computer laboratory with 40 PCs, loaded with offline e-learning content to learners at Diepsloot Combined School in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg on Friday. The employees assisted in refurbishing the laboratory, helping with installations and painting. Earlier in the week, and they donated 45 blankets, 40 mattresses, a flat screen television, DVD player and educational posters and DVDs to a crèche in Windsor, not far from the MTN Group head office in Fairland, Johannesburg. The items were purchased with money raised from various fundraising activities, including a triathlon, auction and 30 Second contests among colleagues.
MTNers in Nigeria participated in the Digiteach Classroom Project, a mobile classroom initiative complete with computers, white boards, projectors and internet connection for students to access learning materials from the back end. Other initiatives included ‘Vocation is Education,’ aimed at elevating vocational education in Nigeria, and Y’ello Tutor. The latter initiative involves the creation of an online learning hub accessible to students in primary and secondary schools across Nigeria, providing them access to learning materials, tutorials, examinations practice questions and other educational resources.
“This has been yet another successful Y’ello Care programme, and we look forward to MTNers raising the bar even higher next year. MTN is an integral part of the communities where we operate, and it’s important that we find time as MTNers to pause and join hands to assist those less privileged in our communities,” says Xolisa Vapi, General Manager for Corporate Affairs at MTN Group.
The next initiative for MTN staff volunteers will be Mandela Day on 18 July.