The SingTel Touching Lives Fund is the Group’s philanthropy programme to raise funds for charities helping disadvantaged children and youths.
Thanks to the collaborative efforts of SingTel and our business associates and partners, employees and members of the public, the Fund has raised over $20 million for more than 20 charities affiliated to the National Council of Social Service (NCSS).
For more information, please visit SingTel Touching Lives Fund.
In Singapore, SingTel has also been a Corporate SHARE (Social Help and Assistance Raised by Employees) company since 1992 and matches our employees’ monthly contributions dollar for dollar. SHARE donations go to the Community Chest, the fundraising arm of NCSS. Since 1991, we have been providing an annual grant to NCSS to defray the costs of telecommunication services for its charities.
In Australia, over A$1.2 million has been donated to 13 charity partners since the launch of the Optus Answering the Call workplace giving programme in 2005. Optus matches employees’ donations made through this programme dollar for dollar. The charities represent a wide range of sectors and assistance areas, including youth, health, depression, overseas aid and development, welfare, animal protection and land conservation.
Since 2008, Optus has made over 54 grants through its Connecting Communities programme, providing life and training skills for disengaged youth, and helping grassroots organisations in Australia with access communications.
Through Optus’ partnership with the Starlight Children’s Foundation and the Livewire Hospital programme, we make it possible for seriously ill, chronically ill and disabled young people to stay connected during long hospital stays. Livewire offers a free, safe and supportive online social network where these young patients can express themselves and find support from other youths in similar circumstances. We also partner Kids Helpline to provide support and advice to young people in need.
We support events of national and international significance. For example, SingTel has been supporting the National Day Parade in Singapore since 1995 as its Principal Telecoms Provider. As a lead sponsor, SingTel provided all telecommunication services for the APEC meetings held in Singapore for the first time in 2009. We were also the official multimedia partner of the inaugural Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. SingTel has been the title sponsor of the FORMULA 1 SINGTEL SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX since 2008, bringing the race closer to Singaporeans.
SingTel is committed to supporting Arts, Sport and the Community within Australia. We believe that through our arts and sports sponsorships, we help strengthen and support Australia’s rich artistic diversity and help develop our sporting talent.
In the cultural and artistic space, Optus partners the Art Gallery of NSW for The Open Gallery programme. This programme has been created for Year 7 Visual Arts students and teachers from Priority Funded Schools to spend a day at the Gallery free of charge who would otherwise not be able to visit the Gallery.
Optus also partners Company B Belvoir and The Bell Shakespeare Company. Bell’s Actors at Work programme focuses on popular Shakespeare plays studied in Australian schools. Our partnership with Belvoir provides access to the theatre for people who would otherwise be unable to attend due to financial and other constraints.
We have a long-standing association with Sydney Swans, Carlton Football Club and Tennis Australia. We are committed to the development of Tennis within Australia and Optus has fostered the next generation of tennis players through various programmes for young achievers and wheelchair athletes. These programmes are: Optus Junior Tour; Optus National Junior Championships; Optus Australian Open Wheelchair Championships; Optus Australian Wheelchair Tennis Team; and the Australian Open.
Optus is a major sponsor of the Football Federation of Australia and the naming rights sponsor of Optus Small Sided Football (the version of the game played at grassroots level by children aged 5-11). Football has one of the highest participation rates among children in Australia and as an Official Partner of the Game Development Program, Optus is committed to supporting Optus Small Sided Football and promoting even greater participation through programmes such as the Optus Small Sided Football Awards which recognises and rewards young players.
The Group supports community causes in many other ways.
Education
Education is a cause close to our heart.
Under the SingTel Group Undergraduate Scholarships programme, recipients pursue undergraduate studies in a variety of disciplines at selected top universities in Asia Pacific
Our associate AIS cares for underprivileged children at its Learning Development Centres in Thailand. In Indonesia, Telkomsel provides educational computer software to schools and trains teachers on the use for computer-based learning. Globe provides Internet access to public high schools in the Philippines. Optus also supports 50 children in Cavite, Philippines, with their development needs through World Vision.
As part of pur regional collaboration efforts, the Globe-SingTel Reading project was launched in November 2009. Over 1,300 books were collected from SingTel staff and shipped to the Philippines, where Globe helped to distribute the books and implement reading programmes in 20 schools. The project encourages underprivileged students, aged 7-10, in rural areas, to develop a love for reading in English.
Reducing social isolation
Reducing social isolation and supporting disengaged youth are key community focus areas for Optus. We do this through a variety of ways such as our Australian Business Community Network partnership where Optus staff members mentor young students from disadvantaged schools across Australia. Optus also supports a range of youth programmes such as Mission Australia's Triple Care Farm helping young people get their lives back on track. We support the NELUNE Foundation by providing two patient transport vehicles enabling cancer patients from regional areas with limited transport to access metropolitan hospital.
Volunteerism
Besides corporate programmes, our employees in Australia and Singapore are given one day of voluntary service leave per year to support their favourite charity or a community cause. SingTel and Optus employees have donated thousands of volunteer hours as a result of this programme.
For example, some 250 Optus volunteers were involved in Australian Business Community Network mentoring programmes that support disadvantaged schools. SingTel employees also partner the Metropolitan YMCA to clean and refurbish the homes of the low-income elderly and to distribute food to needy families on a regular basis.
We are quick to respond to natural disasters in communities where we operate.
For example, in September 2010, SingTel donated S$80,000 to the Pakistan flood relief through Mercy Relief, an independent humanitarian charitable organisation. We also launched an appeal for staff in Australia and Singapore to help the flood victims in Australia. With the donations matched dollar for dollar by Optus and SingTel, a total of about S$450,000 was raised.
In 2011, we raised about S$50,000 for the victims of the Japanese tsunami and earthquake with donations from staff in Australia and Singapore. Optus teamed up with the Red Cross to introduce an SMS service for customers in Australia to make a donation to those affected by the Japan and New Zealand earthquakes. In Singapore, SingTel, together with other mobile operators, set up a common SMS code for customers to make donations through Red Cross.
In October 2011, we donated 2,000,000 million THB (S$84,000) to the Office of the Prime Minister's Disaster Relief Fund in Thailand which went towards helping the communities that were affected by the worst flood to hit the country in 50 years. Members of our Regional CSR Working Group from Globe, Optus and SingTel also joined our AIS colleagues to help in relief efforts at Ayutthaya, Thailand.
