As one of the country’s largest mobile service carriers, Viettel Group has been also one of the most significant contributors to the community as the military-run telecom giant understands that its current development is attributable to the support of the local community. As such, “giving back to the community is our responsibility,” says the company. Viettel’s contribution to the community is far-reaching, with education sponsorship taking center stage in its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.
Benefactor of female footballers, students
Viettel’s most recent CSR activity is its VND1 billion donation to the Vietnamese women’s national football team on March 8.
The donation demonstrated the group’s admiration to the strenuous efforts of the “golden women” in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 for the first time in history. Viettel wanted to encourage the team to continue uniting and gaining better achievements.
In addition, Viettel has given a helping hand to students, the future generations of the country. In specifics, Viettel presented 37,000 tablets and 4G SIM cards with three months of free access to children of poor and near-poor households in eight provinces–Soc Trang, Hau Giang, Vinh Long, Long An, Bac Lieu, Kien Giang, Tra Vinh and Haiphong. The number of tablets is the biggest donated by an organization so far in response to the “Wave coverage and computers for children” program launched by the prime minister. The fund for the tablets was contributed by nearly 40,000 executives and employees of Viettel Group.
Viettel has also offered the online education platform Viettel Study at no charge to students nationwide. The platform has had more than seven million accounts.
Moreover, Viettel has offered data packages, information technology infrastructure and Internet transmission lines for schools, halved the price of data packages for students aged between 14 and 22, and exempted the fees for accessing education apps, such as K12Online and SMAS, and the education websites of provinces.
The group has also provided the school management system SMAS valued at VND127 billion as of late last year to schools nationwide.
Huge funds earmarked by the mobile service carrier are meant as investment in education to create a new generation of “digital citizens”, according to Viettel.
According to Viettel, these activities are aimed at supporting students to access the online learning method. In the near future, Viettel’s tablets will help students access digital services, such as ecommerce, remote medical examination and treatment and noncash payment, and become digital citizens in a digital society that Viettel is striving to create and develop.
As part of the mobile service provider’s CSR programs in education, Viettel had earlier presented more than 20,000 scholarships worth over VND40 billion to students in the 2021-2022 school year under the “As I’m studious” program.
This is the eighth year the program has been held and the first year students would receive scholarships worth VND2 million each, double that in previous years. The scholarships were both in cash and in kind, depending on students’ demand.
The scholarships would be directly handed over to students in remote and coastal areas and islands in 48 cities and provinces across the country. In each commune, five primary students and five secondary students, who are underprivileged ones but study hard and have yet to receive support, will receive the scholarships.
The “As I’m studious” program has been jointly conducted since 2014 by Viettel, the Ministry of Education and Training and the Vietnam Association for Learning Promotion, and was scheduled to continue for 10 years. In the 2014-2020 period, 170,000 scholarships valued at VND170 billion were presented to students through the program.
According to Viettel, a high number of students still have to quit school per year due to their living difficulties. Therefore, Viettel launched the program to nurture these students’ learning dreams and call on the participation of other individuals and organizations.
Supporting pandemic-hit individuals
Viettel is one of the enterprises with the most substantial contribution to the community during the Covid-19 pandemic. In late 2021, the firm supported over 13,000 employees whose jobs were affected by the pandemic with nearly VND23 billion. Viettel has also spent over VND2 billion supporting some 600 Covid-19-infected laborers and their family members.
Not only during the Covid-19 pandemic, Viettel has taken care of its employees’ well-being throughout the year. Its employees have their health checked annually with services valued at some VND60 billion, and can buy health insurance for their family members with a discount of 30%-45%.
Viettel has also strongly supported the Government and the community. In August last year, the group donated VND500 million to the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee in Hanoi. The group also presented VND15.9 billion to many other cities and provinces to cope with the pandemic, with each locality receiving VND200 million to VND1 billion.
Furthermore, the company has coordinated with the High Command of the Military Region 7 to give 6,000 gift sets to residents of six southern localities–HCMC, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Long An, Tay Ninh and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, which encountered a severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.
Apart from these generous contributions to localities during the pandemic, Viettel also contributed VND450 billion to the Covid-19 vaccine fund.
