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Five Pillars – Hand in Hand

For many years at Qtel, we have provided material and social support for community groups and charities across Qatar, as part of a strong tradition for local companies to be active members of society. These initiatives have typically been carried out in partnership with the community, with ideas and requests coming from our colleagues, customers, local schools and charitable organizations. At the heart of Qtel’s development strategy was our “triple P” approach, where people and the planet are valued as highly as profit.

As our operations have expanded internationally, we have encountered high levels of interest in our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities from our partners and new colleagues.

This process of dialogue with our partners encouraged us to look again at how we organize CSR, to maximize the impact of our initiatives, and to leverage the full benefit from how our different campaigns interact together. In particular, we wanted to develop a model that could be executed across The Qtel Group, and which could deploy our resources in the most effective and appropriate way possible.

The first stage of this process was reorganizing our strategy into five key pillars, under the core message, “Hand in Hand,” to emphasize the key priorities and to provide us with a framework to decide which initiatives provided the best fit with our CSR strategy.

Moving forward, our key areas of intervention will be:

• Education
• Healthcare
• Environmental Issues
• Social Welfare initiatives
• Sport

This model has already been applied within Qatar, and we are looking to extend it across our operations in 2009. In particular, we are looking at a number of initiatives that fit within the “five pillar” strategy that could also have an impact across multiple countries within our region.

• For education, Qtel is a major support of original research within Qatar, supporting the creation of a wireless communication research laboratory in Education City in partnership with local universities, and supporting a range of school events and educational projects.

• In healthcare, Qtel supported the construction of the full-fledged dialysis facility at the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC). The state-of-the-art 'Qtel Kidney Dialysis Centre' will cater to over 60 patients at a time when it opens in 2009.

• With regards to environmental issues, Qtel supports the National Program for Raising Awareness and Safe Disposal of Electronic Waste (NPRASDEW), which aims to provide a clean and safe environment in Qatar by targeting the proper disposal of electronic waste.

• In sport, Qtel is one of Qatar's most active supporters of local, regional and international sport.

A number of key initiatives have been developed out of the new strategy. These include:

• Charity auction of Easy-to-Remember Mobile numbers

  Qtel continues to organize auctions of Easy-To-Remember (ETR) numbers, with funds raised going into a central Charitable Fund, designed to provide resources to both long-standing charities and emergency provision for people in need.

  A wide range of social welfare charities and projects have received donations from the money generated by the auctions since 2005. As well as social charities, the Funds raised by the phone auctions are used to support a range of cultural charities.

• Medical Camp in Sealine

  One of the new healthcare initiatives was the development of a medical center in the Sealine area to provide the community with much needed care. Qtel's initiative was held in cooperation with the Qatari Red Crescent (QRC) and the Ministry of Environment (MoE).

- To read Qtel's CSR 2009 Report, please click here: "Hand in hand".