Digicel Foundation celebrates 8 years

As the Digicel Foundation celebrates its eighth anniversary on July 25, it continues its work of impacting communities and improving opportunities for people with special needs throughout TT, even as the world goes through a pandemic.

In a release, the foundation said it had noted a transformation in the quality of projects it had funded and implemented in its community-development and special-needs portfolios over eight years.

It said concluded initiatives such as Zippy’s Friends, Aquaponics Programme, Empowerment through Employment, Just Like You, and SOfit, still have a far-reaching impact on beneficiaries today. Previous interventions and partnerships have had a colossal effect on how the foundation has moved forward with new engagements.

The foundation noted that recent interventions now include IT or tech components aimed at assisting beneficiaries with meeting the demands of the digital-driven 21st century.

“The programmes Connecting You, Masters of Prep, Digital Citizenship and Girls Power Tech, were designed to bolster marginalised youth, giving them the best possible advantage to navigate the world we live in today.

"EPIC, Preparing You, Community Engagement and all Special Olympic of TT initiatives are transforming every year, meeting partners where they are and guaranteeing that each intervention has the desired outcome.”

The Foundation now places a huge emphasis on strategic partnerships with private, public sector and international agencies, encouraging all grantees to also seek and develop new relationships to help achieve organisational goals.

Digicel Foundation CEO Penny Gomez said the company made a decision to establish a foundation to have a focused approach to its corporate social responsibility activities.

“That decision has provided thousands of interventions in the areas of special needs and community development that have positively impacted the lives over 143,302 persons in 477 projects through the use of US $4.22 million. I wish we could say the beneficiaries were the fortunate ones, but in fact we at the Foundation consider it both a privilege and a blessing that we are constantly given opportunities to make such meaningful differences in the lives of others. We also are grateful to our customers, who through their loyalty allow us the means to get this important work done across TT.”

The Foundation will be celebrating its anniversary, planning for new, innovative ways to work along with stakeholders to create and fund projects that help to create a world where no one gets left behind.

For more information on the Digicel TT Foundation visit the website digicelfoundation.org and find them on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn @digicelfoundationtt.