Vodacom has pledged its support to the United Nations' (UN's) global goals for sustainable development through free online access to education, career and health Web sites. This marks world sustainability week which runs until 24 September.
"Through our partnerships with government and communities, we have found more innovative ways through which mobile communication technologies can support financial inclusion, food security, health and access to education. We are happy to report that in each of these areas we have been able to make significant strides in improving the lives of our customers and the communities we operate in," says Vodacom's managing executive for product and commercial management, Zunaid Mahomed.
The network's participation in this initiative speaks to four of the 17 UN global goals for sustainability in the fight against inequality and poverty. These goals are good health and well-being; quality education; decent work and economic growth; and sustainable cities and communities.
The telco says that over the years it has launched a number of zero-rated initiatives that have given South African's access to free online websites including an education portal, jobs portal as well as products and services that contribute to sustainable economic, social and environment development.
Projects: E-school, jobs, health, fire detection
The Vodacom e-school, which is a partnership with the department of education, is a secure online learning content portal for grade 4 -12 learners. Through the e-school, learners who are Vodacom subscribers are able to access classroom content aligned to the school's curriculum via their cell-phones, tablets or laptops. To date the portal has over 150 000 learners registered.
In June Vodacom partnered with South Africa's biggest career websites to launch the NXT LVL zero-rated career website - in an attempt to remove the cost burden associated with searching for a job. The zero-rated website enables job seekers to browse job sites, upload their CVs and apply for available positions free of charge when accessing Vodacom partner career sites. These career sites include Careers24, PNet, JobMail, Career Jet, Giraffe, Career Junction, SA Learnerships and Indeed.
In the health space, Vodacom and Mezzanine have developed a real-time mobile platform that allows healthcare professionals to utilise secure mobile devices to send treatment plans to patients, manage patient's medical records and monitor the availability of medicine at the dispensaries. Vodacom has also partnered with the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) and the national department of health through its mobi-site B-Wise to give free-access to health information.
In partnership with Lumkani, Vodacom has implemented fire-detection devices in informal settlements. To prevent fires from ravaging these densely-populated communities, a device has been created that, if triggered, alerts all other fire-detection devices in a 60-metre radius, as well as sets an alarm that alerts its owners.
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