MTN Ghana wins Y'ello Care award

MTN Nigeria, MTN Uganda and MTN Sudan were awarded regional prizes and each won US$3,000 which must also be used for social responsibility initiatives.

Encouraging voluntary participation

Now in its fourth year, the 21 Days of Y'ello Care programme is an annual MTN staff initiative aimed at encouraging staff to volunteer their time and skills for community service. At the end of the 21 days set aside across the company for staff volunteerism under this programme, MTN's 21 operations across Africa and the Middle East submit reports of their activities for the awards.

The evaluation of the reports, done by an independent social responsibility consultancy, looks at how the operations fare in securing the highest participation of staff volunteers and the strategic significance and high impact of their community projects.

This year, all 21 MTN Group operations were required to initiate social responsibility activities related to the 2010 FIFA World Cup legacy programmes (United Against Malaria and 1Goal: Education for All) and other football related activities and programmes of national priority.

Securing high participation

The challenge is for MTN operations to out-perform each other in securing the highest percentage of employees participating in projects that have a measurable impact.

Says MTN Group executive, corporate affairs, Nozipho January-Bardill: "The MTN Group wishes to congratulate the MTN Ghana executive and staff as well as the regional winners and all the MTN staff members who participated for a sterling show of commitment to volunteerism and to community service. We believe this is part of what makes up MTN's DNA and sets us apart."

MTN Ghana adopted a multi-tiered approach to the initiatives undertaken which allowed for participation while catering for staff who wanted to engage projects at an in-depth or more meaningful level. MTN Ghana also balanced the project portfolio in terms of geographic reach and the focus areas for this year.

Model for other MTN operations

Commending MTN Ghana, the independent evaluators said the staff made good use of partnerships, rallying partners, funds and high profile people to get involved in their volunteerism initiatives. They demonstrated a high level of organisational competency and their planning and thought leadership for this campaign was a model for other MTN operations to emulate.

Said MTN Ghana CEO, Brett Goschen: "We are humbled by this recognition, we were not expecting it. Twenty one Days of Y'ello Care is special because it gives staff the opportunity to provide social upliftment in communities in which they contribute and serve. Based on their experiences as members of those communities, they get to decide what the needs are and therefore what the activities will be."