Accra, March 3, GNA - Management of Vodafone Ghana Limited, a telecommunication service provider, on Tuesday in Accra launched a Vodafone Ghana Foundation.

It is aimed at supporting projects that seek to address challenges facing communities in the country and to empower the people to be self-reliant.

The foundation, which adds up to existing 25 charity groups worldwide, is expected to create a niche for itself in the corporate philanthropy landscape in Ghana and to use local content including employees of the company to embark on projects in deprived communities. Mr. David Venn, Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Ghana Limited, said the company would collaborate with such communities to provide the people with technology, skills and talents to enable them to find solutions to their problems.

"For us, corporate responsibility is the way we do business but we see social responsibility as our solemn pledge to the community," he said. Mr. Venn said the social responsibility that the company delivers through the Vodafone Foundation, involved charity works that had no direct financial benefits to the company.

He said the company recognized that the state alone could not solve problems of communities and called on corporate bodies and individuals to support volunteerism aimed at assisting the needy.

"Those who embark on voluntary action out of a sense of duty often find that it brings in the end a new richness of meaning. By assisting people they would also received something important and fundamental," he said. Mr. Venn said the company had passed on 'power' to communities, their employers, and to customers, great strengths and voluntary action that had contributed towards strengthening communities.

"Our role now is to champion an action which empowers people, encourages innovation and delivers high quality public service for all," he said.

In a speech read on his behalf, Professor Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, said the Foundation would fund projects that would promote community partnership and volunteerism. "The project should demonstrate a clear benefit to the people or cause for which you seek funding. It should show a sustainability path long after the foundation has withdrawn its funding or completed the project and a plan for community involvement and participation," he said

Prof. Tagoe, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the Vodafone Ghana Foundation, said the foundation would concentrate on projects in road safety, employee and community partnerships, world of difference and red alert.

He said under the road safety project, the Foundation would work with the National Road Safety Commission and other stakeholders to prevent the carnage on the roads.

Prof. Tagoe said employees of the company would be given the opportunity to scout their communities for projects and present them to the Foundation for consideration and funding.

He said the Foundation would soon launch a programme dubbed "World of Difference", which would give volunteers the opportunity to work with a charity group of their choice and produce a proposal that could make a positive impact on the people.