Press Releases

Budapest, January 20, 2011 14:30

Magyar Telekom's Jövő/Menő program launched jointly with its strategic NGO partner has won Hungary's Employee Volunteering Award. Jövő/Menő, which demonstrates the possibilities for sustainable development with the help of employee volunteers, has come out first both in large company and newcomer categories in the competition invited by the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum (HBLF). The award was taken over by Chairman-CEO Christopher Mattheisen at today's award ceremony. The award winning program will represent Hungary in the European level competition in both categories.

One of the key programs of the "2011 - the European Volunteering Year", announced by the European Commission, is the employee volunteering competition run in 22 European countries with the aim to showcase the most innovative and efficient volunteering projects and to ensure their national and European recognition.

As a part of this initiative HBLF has announced the Employee Volunteering Award competition for all companies of all sizes in Hungary that have introduced employee volunteering programs that help people facing barriers to work increase their employability skills.

The competition was run in three categories in Hungary: large company, small company and newcomer (recently launched) employee volunteering programs were invited to apply. On the basis of the jury's assessment the Jövő/Menő program launched in 2010 jointly by Magyar Telekom and its strategic NGO partner, the Szívlapát Foundation, has won the Employee Volunteering Award in both large company and newcomer categories. As a result it will be the Jövő/Menő program that will represent Hungary in both categories in the European round of the competition.

Christopher Mattheisen, Magyar Telekom's Chairman-CEO commented when accepting the award: "We launched this program last year in the framework of Magyar Telekom's strategic NGO partnership, jointly with Szívlapát Foundation. I am very happy that, thanks to the commitment of our volunteering employees, we have managed to make our joint program set up for sustainable development so successful in such a short time. I am especially proud that it is our program that can represent Hungary in the European level competition at the time of Hungary's EU-Presidency."

The Jövő/Menő program launched in 2010 and planned to last for three years aims at demonstrating, through the life of the Mezőcsát, a region with a 15 thousand population in Borsod County, the possibilities of bringing about sustainable development through the involvement of the local population, in the framework of a series of community programs and events. This region has been selected for its multiple disadvantages -- high unemployment, lack of special medical care and low income generating tourism accompanied by digital backwardness.

A major role in the cooperation-based project belongs to demonstrating the harmonization of society, the environment and economy, in a local framework yet in alignment with global values. The practical implementation and programs render transparent and clear the meaning of sustainability and, at the same time, may forge the local inhabitants into a community.

The work schedule of the Jövő/Menő program is implemented by Magyar Telekom's strategic NGO partner, the Szívlapát Foundation with Magyar Telekom's support and participation of the company's volunteering employees. The professional partner of the program is the Environmental Social Research Team of the Environmental and Landscape Management Institute of the University of Gödöllő.

Since the launch of the Jövő/Menő program, Magyar Telekom's 160 volunteers worked about 250 volunteer days during the program's events. Nearly 200 other volunteers also joined the event series, mainly at the program's festivals.

The Jövő/Menő program is being implemented around four series of events. In the framework of the Digital Bridge Fest Magyar Telekom's volunteers teach the local inhabitants to use the internet, thereby helping them close the digital divide. In the accompanying programs Péter Novák and the kulturpart.hu team also organize talent search competitions the winners of which are granted the possibility to be introduced on stage and on the internet. The aim of the Local Produce training series is, in addition to knowledge sharing, to bring about a virtual local market where local producers and consumers may more readily find each other, which may give an impetus to the revaluation of locally grown produce. In the free of charge Mediasuli training courses youth interested in television broadcasting, journalism and the internet are trained to update the national press with news about events in their region and the results of the program. The renewable energy sources workshop called Jövő/Menő ErőNyerő has the main aim of knowledge sharing related to alternative energy sources. With the help of professionals and Magyar Telekom's volunteers several simple solutions built on cheap renewable energy sources are shown to those interested, using which one not only can do something for the environment and reduce one's utility bills but, indirectly, the local population's health and quality of life can be significantly improved.

More information about the Jövő/Menő program is available at http://www.jovomeno.org/.