Orange in the community

Orange Romania supports initiatives and projects that relate to communication and dialogue. We want to bring added value to the communities where we operate and, in this respect, we believe we need to contribute with more than financial resources. We want to offer our experience and out time. Our Corporate Responsibility projects help us play a more active role in community' s life and promote dynamism and innovation.

You can learn in detail about the activities we got involved in from our published Social Responsibility reports..

We support:

people with communication disabilities education access to communication social field environment conservation volunteer programmes disaster relief

people with communication disabilities

Since 2004 we support a project of Light into Europe association, dedicated to children with hearing and sight impairments. The project is aimed at reducing the risk of social exclusion for these young people, encouraging responsible decisions by moving the children' s energy in a positive direction that can offer them better opportunities for integrating in society. Through this project, schools received various educational materials and equipment for children, clubs were established for extra-curricular activities dedicated to improvement of their abilities, and the parents of children with sight disabilities have their first magazine.

education

For Orange, the most important investment is made in people, because according to our vision, only this approach can ensure long-term success. We believe we have an important role to play in professional development of young people, and for that reason we have developed over the years a series of programmes for students: School of Sales, School of Marketing, School of Customer Experience, School of Communication, internship programmes in Orange business as well as career guidance seminars.

access to communication

We believe that it is highly important for each Romanian citizen to have access to communication services, and also that it is our responsibility to contribute to reaching this objective. In this spirit, Orange Romania is the first mobile operator who got involved in   the Universal Service and Knowledge Based Economy projects, initiated by the National Regulatory Authority in Communications and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. The aim is to offer access to communication services to people in rural, isolated areas. As part or Universal Service project, in 2005 Orange Romania opened 5 telecenters where people have access to the public telephony network, fax and internet.

Also, we implemented Local Community e-Networks in 6 villages, connecting the main institutions - the municipality, the school, the library and the Public Internet Access Point. The target group of this project is represented by the communities disadvantaged from the point of view of access to information.

social field

We supported Samusocial project, dedicated to homeless people in Bucharest, people who are in crisis at a personal, psychological and social level. The project aims to ensure emergency services for these people. Orange supported the Samusocial mobile aid teams and the operation of a medical-psychological-social cabinet for the homeless.

In 2004, 6300 homeless people benefited of medical consultations, 47 people got a job, 192 people got an identity card and 8 people obtained a home.

environment conservation

Orange concluded a partnership with the ADEPT Transylvania foundation to support an innovative project dedicated to the conservation of landscape biodiversity and the development of rural communities. The project is aimed at a 100,000 hectare area in the Saxon Villages region of South-Eastern Transylvania. This is an important region from ecological and cultural points of view, where a remarkable biodiversity of flora and fauna can still be found, including many species threatened with extinction at international level. Nevertheless, there are a number of immediate threats to the biodiversity of the area - abandonment of grasslands, unsustainable forest management, lack of information, and intensive use of pesticides and artificial fertilisers that can easily and permanently affect the rich flora and fauna and pollute water courses.

The objective of the project is the conservation of the biodiversity of the area and the promotion of sustainable development, thus offering at the same time direct benefits to local communities.

volunteer programmes

Through all projects supported by Orange we intend to offer to our employees as many volunteering opportunities as possible, because it' s important to contribute not only with financial resources but also with our time and experience. That is why we developed the volunteer programme you for the community.

Every year, in December we organize a Christmas Bazaar in our Bucharest offices where children with sight or hearing impairments from schools in Bucharest exhibit their works with a lot of passion and dedication: holiday greeting cards, Christmas tree ornaments, drawings, icons painted on glass, knitted rugs, painted pebbles and many other objects. From donations made by Orange employees we help Santa Clause to bring gifts to these children.

Another initiative of the volunteer programme "you for the community" was the painting campaign for schools of children with hearing and sight disabilities in Bucharest. The objective of this campaign was to cheer up the children's universe and make it more colourful, the reward being the smiles on children's faces.

In October 2005 we launched a new project with the aim at improving communication with hearing impaired people and their integration in society. Part of this project, our employees participated as volunteers to a sign language course, and in the following period we will develop various activities with hearing impaired children and their families.

Orange employees also got involved in helping people affected by the floods all over the country in 2005 and donated 40.839 RON to the Red Cross.

disaster relief

The end of 2004 was marked by the natural calamity in South and South East Asia. Orange Romania joined in a France Telecom Group initiative, to help people suffering as a result of this tragedy.

All Orange customers from the affected regions benefited from free roaming for 10 days, from 26 December 2005 - 4 January 2006. Orange Romania joined Romanian National Television and UNICEF' s "Smile for Asia" - a fundraising campaign - and made available a phone number that customers could use to make donations, by calling or sending a text message.

Orange offered support to people affected by the floods in Romania in 2005 and donated 200.000 euros to build 20 houses in Galati County for old people with low incomes, unable to rebuild their houses.

Also, Orange doubled the amount donated by the employees to the Red Cross and gave 80.000 RON to people affected by the floods. We also supported fund raising campaigns initiated by media channel - Romanian National Television, National TV, Realitatea TV and also the United Nations Development Programme - by opening short numbers where customers could make donations through voice calls or text messages. We also got involved through our technology and our services - offering 30 mobile phones to isolated localities in order to facilitate communication and through prompt intervention to restore communication services in affected areas.