With that as a rallying call, MTN’s 21 Days of Y’ello Care initiative kicks off across the mobile operator’s vast footprint in Africa and the Middle East today. This has seen thousands of MTN staff volunteers taking part in various tree-planting initiatives for 21 days.
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‘Making a Positive Difference to the Environment’ was the campaign’s theme this year, in keeping with the United Nation’s declaration of 2011 as the International Year of Forests.
“We at MTN have applied our minds to the theme and found it worthy of the support of approximately 30 000 of our employees spread across our markets - from Afghanistan in the Middle East to Zambia in Africa,” says MTN Corporate Affairs Executive, Rich Mkhondo.
The staff volunteers were joined by their executives, who exchanged their suits for overalls and shovels, in an all-out tree planting exercise. In addition to this, the MTN operations rolled out other environmental projects, such river and beach clean-ups, provide communities with solar-paneled water pumps and various other initiatives aimed at preserving the planet’s resources.
The overall target over three weeks is to plant a minimum of 21 000 trees. This translated to 1 000 trees per MTN country. However, there were operations which exceed this target due to the number of volunteers participating.
MTN Ghana was declared the overall winner for the 2010 edition of the 21 Days of Y’ello Care initiative, taking home the coveted US$100 000 prize. This was in recognition of MTN Ghana’s well-executed 2010 FIFA World Cup legacy projects to eradicate malaraia, support education through the 1Goal initiative and use football to foster development.
21 Days of Y’ello Care was instituted by the MTN Group President and CEO in 2007 to give all MTN employees an opportunity to contribute towards improving the welfare of their communities.
It has now become a prominent feature in MTN’s calendar, and is also one of MTN’s flagship Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes driven by MTN Foundations in the mobile operator’s markets.
In South Africa, the tree-planting initiative is being driven in partnership with Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA). FTFA (http://mytrees.mobi/ and www.trees.co.za) has distributed over 4 million trees and created thousands of organic food gardens for the poor.
The launch event was held in Cosmo City, north-west of Johannesburg, where MTN staff planted 500 trees on 1 June, and again on 21 June. Cosmo City is a mixed-use, integrated housing development near Kya Sands in northern Gauteng. On completion, the population of Cosmo City is expected to be between 65 000 and 70 000 people. FTFA has been greening this settlement with over 14 000 Trees for Homes planted there to date.
“With South Africa hosting the COP17 Climate Change global conference in Durban later this year, MTN’s tree-planting initiative as a theme could not have been more appropriate and relevant. It is through interventions like 21 Days of Y’ello Care that MTN is the most admired brand and leading corporate organization in the vast majority our markets,” says Mkhondo.
