Airtel DRC, UN team up to launch social programmes
MOBILE
By BiztechAfrica – July 20, 2014, 7:35 p.m.
By Issa Sikiti da Silva, in Kinshasa, DR Congo
Mobile operator Airtel DRC has teamed up with the United Nations Development Programme (PNUD) and a local bank, Rawbank, to launch a series of social programmes aiming at improving the lives of rural Congolese people.
The first phase will be implemented in the rural areas of Walungu and Burhale in conflict-hit South Kivu in eastern DRC.
The announcement was made at a press conference recently held in the capital Kinshasa.
Airtel said it would open a computer training centre and Airtel-branded internet cafés to help ICT-illiterate youth and enhance digital knowledge in the poverty-hit community.
This synergy was needed to bring more social actions, and contribute more effectively to the development of people, Airtel DRC corporate communications manager Dandy Yela said.
Rawbank will rehabilitate the local market, Rawbank spokesperson Laurence Feza said, adding that her company was teaching communities how to fish instead of giving them fish.
The initiatives form part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR), the two companies said, adding that this pilot project will, over a period of one year, support local communities to develop employment opportunities by strengthening their entrepreneurial skills and offering them technical and financial support.
