Orange mulls extending free internet services to schools under 2020 CSR strategy

10 / 12 / 2019

• CSR
• news

Orange, one of Egypt’s largest mobile operators, is mulling providing free internet services to schools, universities and youth centers under its 2020 corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, CEO of Orange Egypt Yasser Shaker said.

In press statements, Shaker said Orange Egypt spearheaded several CSR initiatives in 2019 focusing on developing health and educational services; empowering women and youths; and promoting entrepreneurship.

The company has established five manufacturing labs nearby universities for about 5,000 students in various governorates to work there, he said, adding that Fablabs – powered by Orange – support about 250 companies.

Orange has also set up seven social schools in collaboration with Misr El Kheir in addition to digital schools. The social schools are meant to help dropout students or those who failed to join education for certain circumstances.

Shaker said the company has established also a call center in the Upper Egypt governorate of Assiut to create about 400 jobs and 1,000 training opportunities.

In September 2019, Orange also launched a campaign for supporting sick children at Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357.  A group of Orange employees visited the hospital and shared the sick children several activities. Orange employees were dressed in orange, a color which is symbolic for leukemia. Wearing this color is no coincidence as September marks the Blood Cancer Awareness Month.  In addition, Orange distributed bags and school tools on the occasion of starting a new school year.

The company’s CSR strategy has been also keen on giving hand to painstaking efforts to realize the Sustainable Development Goals, which focused mainly on protecting the environment and curbing climate change.

Orange, as the Official Sponsor of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2019, launched “the Games of Change” program to spread awareness about the importance of ditching plastic waste which kills up to 1 million sea birds, 100,000 sea mammals, marine turtles and countless fish each year.

“The Games of Change” aimed to encourage football fans to collect plastic wastes (such as plastic bottles) for recycling, at collection points designated specifically by the company for this contest. On the other hand, the fans will have the chance to win football jerseys made of recycled plastic.

During the AFCON championship, Orange set up what it called “Orange Can Bank” at Cairo Stadium and urged the fans to throw plastic bottles and cans there in return for gifts and tickets for attending the tournament matches.

The collected plastic bottles were recycled to be used for establishing a football pitch. The company chose the remote area o f Abu-Zaabal leprosy colony to establish the football pitch which will be fully made of recycled plastic.

The company has also contributed to curbing air pollution which kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year. Orange teamed up with the Arab Organization for Industrialization, Mwasalat Misr and Fawry – a pioneering e-payment network to support the project of electric buses.

Shaker said Orange will be in charge of launching e-payment and Wi-Fi services at electric buses. The first stage will go on line within three to six months.

He noted that the company’s strategy addresses three main axes; developing the quality of its services, expanding digital transformation services and boosting its CSR activities.

He noted that the company injects more than 90 percent of its total investments annually into improving its services, noting that its 4G subscribers reached 6 million.

Orange subscribers reached about 28.3 million in September 2019.

He said Orange revenues reached about 211 million euros in the third quarter of 2019 against 195 euros in the corresponding period in 2018.