Press Releases

Budapest, December 22, 2009 10:00

The Telekom Donation Line has been operating successfully for seven years; in 2009, as in the previous years, it facilitated donations from the Hungarian public to six non-governmental organizations. In the last two months of the year, calling 1788, supports Káva Cultural Group.

46 NGOs - 46 important social initiatives. Hungarians have had the opportunity to contribute to the solution of very diverse social problems in the past seven years, through a simple-to-use channel, which required very little expenditure from the individual: calls made to the 1788 number translated into HUF 100 donations per call to the NGO of the caller's choice.

Over the past years, support has been provided to foundations helping sick, handicapped or disadvantaged children or adults (e.g. Down Association, International Children's Rescue Service, Peter Cerny Foundation), as well as organizations striving to increase awareness of health risks and to create a more health-conscious society (Egy Csepp Figyelem /One drop of attention/ Foundation, The Bridge of Health Association).

When evaluating the applications received, the Board of Trustees of the Magyar Telekom Contributes program decided, in December, to support the following NGOs through the Donation Line in 2010: Special Medical and Ambulance Association of the University of Debrecen, Anna Dévény Foundation, Equestrian Academy Sports Club, BLISS Foundation, Humane Vocational Training and Placement Foundation, Hungarian Pediatric Ambulance Foundation.

Magyar Telekom's Chairman-CEO, Christopher Mattheisen said: " When 1788, the humanitarian call number, was launched we did not know how ready the Hungarian society would be to support NGOs. Now, it is more accepted that people give donations and an increasing number of them do volunteer work. People were sensitive to social causes before, but they did not have the channels to support them in a simple and transparent way. That is why the Donation Line, through which 46 organizations have received support amounting to millions of Forints, is so popular. This is definitely a significant achievement, as the NGOs concerned have gained momentum from the donations they received to finance their everyday operation and represent the causes they embrace."

The spokesperson for the Donation Line, Klári Katona summed up her experience as follows: "I could go on for days telling you real stories of real people who received support from the Donation Line. I can say that all of them strengthen our trust in each other. It is very important that those who have helped know that without them, it would have been impossible to do so much good in so many different areas. It was only a few months ago that we collected donations for the Gólyahír Association, which supports open adoption. Prompted by the Donation Line's message advertised on a daily basis, people helped mothers undergoing a personal crisis to find stepmothers for the 24 children. With such a small contribution, you can totally change lives. That is why I love this initiative, and am happy to have been a part of it for seven years."

Six more NGOs received support through the Donation Line in 2009: National Federation for Children with Cancer and Leukemia, Gólyahír Association, Down Association, Periphery Foundation, Hungarian Foundation for the Rescue of Premature and Newborn Babies, as well as the KÁVA Cultural Group, which promotes education through theater arts. Those who believe it important to address the problem of violence at school still have two more weeks to support Káva by calling the Donation Line. The organization's objective is to shape the attitude of primary and secondary school pupils towards this issue through drama club activities.

Magyar Telekom renewed its support activities in 2009, and defined its focal areas as preventive healthcare, sustainability with special emphasis on popularizing digital literacy, as well as the spread of scientific knowledge. By defining these specific areas, the Company can focus its support more efficiently. Even so, Magyar Telekom, which has received the Top Corporate Donor Award, still has a very broad corporate citizenship program, encompassing numerous external and internal initiatives.

One such initiative is the Non-governmental Strategic Partnership Program, in the framework of which the Company cooperates with NGOs, selected in several rounds of competition, in implementing socially important projects for three years, or the Digital Bridge Program, established with the objective to eliminate the digital divide, including the Internet Academy primarily for older people, or Egálnet, promoting NGOs' online presence and networking.
Our current initiative invites applications in the context of the Civil and CivilNet tariff packages, about which you can read more at www.telekom.hu.

About Magyar Telekom
Magyar Telekom is Hungary's biggest provider of telecom services. It provides a full range of telecommunications and infocommunications (ICT) services including fixed line and mobile telephony, data transmission and non-voice as well as IT and systems integration services. The business activities of Magyar Telekom are managed by two business units: Consumer services (the home-related services brand T-Home and the mobile communications brand T-Mobile) and Business services (T-Systems brand). Magyar Telekom is the majority owner of Makedonski Telekom, the leading fixed line and mobile operator in Macedonia and it holds a majority stake in Crnogorski Telekom, the leading telecommunications operator in Montenegro. Magyar Telekom's majority shareholder (59.21%) is MagyarCom Holding GmbH, fully owned by Deutsche Telekom AG.
For further information visit www.telekom.hu.