CAIRO: “Helping hands that want to learn” is the motto of Mobinil’s new initiative launched this Ramadan, which plans to help 100,000 citizens acquire skills that they need in order to be productive and make a living.
“A lot of people want jobs, but they don’t have the proper resources or training, this is what we want to provide,” said Hassan Kabbani, CEO of Mobinil at a conference on Wednesday. “We picked Ramadan to launch the initiative so that it will continue, because this is the month of good will.”
The program, part of Mobinil’s corporate social responsibility program, is partnering with five of Egypt’s biggest non-governmental organizations.
Participating in the program is a diverse group of NGOs including Dar El-Orman, Ebtessama or Smile Foundation, which helps citizens with special needs, the Association for Women’s Total Advancement & Development (AWTAD), Injaz-Egypt, and the Development Association for Empowering Special Needs (DAESN), specifically for the help of visually impaired citizens.
While Mobinil started the program with these partners, the company’s ongoing role will be to provide funding and publicity for the initiative in order to build up its exposure.
NGOs, on the other hand, will be responsible for training the candidates, executing the projects, as well as providing regular progress reports for each project.
Mobinil will also help by coordinating with companies and participants in order to see where they can place potential employees.
While the initiative does not guarantee all individuals will be directly given jobs, it does ensure that they will all have the proper tools needed in order to be eligible for work.
Kabbani also pointed out that often times, many intelligent youth and citizens in Egypt who have skills, cannot utilize them.
“We wanted to do something effective for the society,” he said. “We don’t want to give people fish, we want to teach them how to fish.”
He added that there is no real limit to how many people the initiative will assist; 100,000 citizens is simply a starting point.
Not only will individuals have the opportunity to gain knowledge and access to employment opportunities, they will also have the chance to acquire funding and research if they have their own project or business ideas.
The NGOs plan to hold events where they will invite investors and businesses so that any participant can showcase their talent, idea or product.
“This is an initiative that Mobinil will continue to support and grow throughout the coming years in order to provide more and more opportunities for people to develop and earn a decent living,” the company said in a statement.
Each organization plans to bring a different approach to the project.
“There is a problem in our society as it does not accept citizens with special needs because there is a lack of awareness on the issue,” said Magda Samy, head of Ebtessama.
Often times companies hire special needs citizens only on paper and send them a paycheck every month only to meet their quota as there is a state law which requires 5 percent of the company’s staff to be special needs citizens, Samy pointed out.
“This has to change,” she said. “Businesses do not realize that these are equal citizens who have abilities and can contribute just like anyone else in society.”
Mobinil, one of Egypt’s three telecom providers, has around 30 million subscribers.
In the aftermath of ex-president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, which slammed businesses across the country, Mobinil reported last week a net loss of LE 108.5 million ($18.2 million) in its second-quarter results, according to Reuters.
Last year, the company reported a net profit of LE 378.7 million.
The price target on shares of the telecom provider was cut 21 percent by AlembicHC to LE 103 on the back of lower margins and higher leverage, non-cash charges, and taxes, Reuters reported.
According to the report, the company’s shares are presumed to be under pressure until after it announces its third quarter results.
