Press Release

“Orange helps” combines mobile communication with social responsibility

- Initiative uses remaining airtime minutes for a good cause
- Cooperation with the charities Caritas, Licht ins Dunkel and Make-A-Wish® Foundation Austria
- Information on current status of donations and assistance projects at www.orange-hilft.at

Orange uses its company vision to launch a new initiative combining mobile communication with social responsibility. “Orange helps“ makes it easy for customers to assist other customers who are not doing so well at the moment. The company converts the remaining free airtime minutes resulting from the new Team 2010 tariff plans every month into donations for projects of the charities Caritas, Licht ins Dunkel and Make-A-Wish® Foundation Austria.

“In September 2008 we launched the vision “Together we can do more“ in Austria“, explains Orange CEO Michael Krammer. “We support people in identifying new ways of getting in touch with one another and building something together. This also entails supporting each other when somebody is not doing so well. Consequently, we have launched a new initiative together with out customers and selected partners to support charity projects in Austria.“

Orange turns time into money
Orange does not only provide customers with communication services of the highest possible quality at an attractive price, but effective immediately also offers an added social value. With the new Team 2010 tariff schemes customers benefit twice: 2010 free airtime minutes, viz. twice as many free airtime minutes to all Austrian networks compared to tariff schemes to date. This ensures carefree calls and maximum cost control. In addition, there is the opportunity to donate the free airtime minutes remaining at the end of an invoicing period for a good cause.

Donations as a Facebook fan
Orange converts free airtime minutes not used into money and supports projects by Caritas, Make-A-Wish® Foundation Austria and Licht ins Dunkel. 100 free airtime minutes correspond to one cent. “A small amount of the remaining free airtime minutes donated by every individual in its total results in effective help“, says Michael Krammer.
Customers who do not have a Team 2010 tariff plan contract and would still like to help, have the opportunity to become a fan of the “Orange helps“ campaign on Facebook. For every new fan 50 cent go to projects of the Make-A-Wish® Foundation Austria.

Poverty is on the rise – about one million people live in poverty or are in danger of impoverishment
According to recent data published by the Austrian Statistical Office about one million people in Austria are in danger of being impoverished. Once fixed costs have been deducted, the people concerned on average still have 6.35 euros a day for food and drink. “Many need our assistance to get out of the tight corner they are currently in. Together we can change the lives of people and thus give their lives a positive new direction“, emphasises Caritas President Franz Kueberl.
The charity Caritas will support mothers and children in need with the donations resulting from the "Orange helps" initiative, above all in mother-children-houses. These provide a safe harbour for homeless mothers and their children.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation® Austria uses the donations resulting from this campaign to fulfill the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. Thus the charity helps the children to forget their diseases for a while. Bernhard Englisch, President of the Make-A-Wish Foundation® Austria: “Let’s not stop fulfilling the wishes of these children as the joy and laughter which we thus bring into their lives have more power than we can imagine. I can only support this statement by our founding father Prof. Keith Y.C. Goh."

Licht ins Dunkel uses the donations resulting from “Orange helps“ to support a project by the charity Lebenshilfe Salzburg enabling disabled people to find a job in the farming industry.
“To help people in need is a concern within society which needs publicity and a lobby in our media-dominated age“, emphasises Sissy Mayerhoffer, Head of Humanitarian Broadcasting of ORF, the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. “I am delighted that as many companies as possible face their corporate social responsibility and consequently make an important contribution to establish social equality. The ORF has been supporting the “Licht ins Dunkel‘ campaign for as many as 37 years. This forms part of our mandate, but also of how we define ourselves – we will never leave Austria in a lurch!“

For all details on “Orange helps“, the current status of donations and information on the projects, please refer to www.orange-hilft.at.