Chairman of Etisalat Misr unveils Origin Etisalat Misrs major social responsibility initiative

Etisalat Misr's latest corporate social responsibility initiative "Origin" has been the talk of the town in Egypt for the past few weeks, the company has partnered with renowned names in development like the giant international organization "care" and NGOs from the Egyptian civil society like resala, the Egyptian society and are working together on this large-scale initiative to tackle complicated water related problems in 7 governorates. A turning point to the conventional corporate social responsibility projects seen in Egypt, inspired by a man who loves his country and is completely backing up and supporting the initiative, Gamal El Sadat, Chairman of Etisalat Misr, speaks about "origin":

Why did Etisalat choose this initiative?
Etisalat chose to adopt a cause that is important to the development and well-being of the Egyptian people, we chose to adhere to a platform and give it top priority rather than just choose ad-hoc interventions here and there so we can make a change. Our research tells us that according to the United Nations there are areas in Egypt that need interventions in different fields regarding water. This data as well as the fact that the United Nations has identified providing clean water and sanitation as a goal for the millennia have drawn us towards trying to make a tangible change in the water platform.

What is the role of Etisalat in this initiative?
Etisalat has identified this platform for intervention and has designed a full long-term plan to effectively tackle the problem and help eradicate it's root causes, Etisalat has identified the partners and has divided roles and responsibilities according to their capacity and expertise, Etisalat will monitor and evaluate all projects closely and plan for next steps for further areas of intervention and further funding opportunities.
What is the criteria by which Etisalat chose those specific locations/governorates/ villages?
All locations were chosen as a result of co-planning and researching with our chosen partners; our partners have many years of experience in the field and have been a great aid in identifying the areas needing intervention. We have tried to help those most in need first and will continue to work from there to find the next batch of villages in need and so on.

What are the actual activities that are going to take place?
There are four components; these components tackle the water problem, its root causes and one very dangerous consequence of water problems, we try to tackle the problem in the first and main component by delivering safe drinking water to villages that have little or no access to water. On the other hand, in the second component, we install water purification plants and systems to areas that have water but it is unfortunately not safe to drink because of mixing with sewage or otherwise, these two components will provide safe drinking water to hundreds of thousands. In the third component we tackle a major cause of water scarcity, wasting irrigation water; here we help solve water management issues and provide solutions to thousands of farmers. Finally we tackle kidney failure, mainly caused by water related problems, we supply public hospitals with dialysis devices to help ease their treatment. There is also a cross-cutting theme in the first three components and that is awareness and education.

Are you going to provide any awareness programs to the locals, if yes then in what form?
Yes, awareness is our cross cutting theme for the initiative, where possible we have combined educational and awareness programs with our projects; we are targeting the Community Development Agencies with capacity building programs. We are going to work with the locals with awareness programs. As for school children, we have ensured that they receive the suitable educational and empowerment activities with focus on field trips, we firmly believe the educational and awareness aspect directly contributes to the sustainability of the initiative.

How long is the initiative for?
The initiative will be for several years, once we measure the effects of the first year we will be more capable to determine the exact time needed to make the difference we seek; we do not expect it to be before 3-5 years

How will you measure results?
The partners will be submitting full reports on the financial level and on the level of direct impact, we will analyze these reports together with the reports of monitoring and evaluation to come up with full quantitative reports as well as report on the social, economical benefits and health related benefits that have occurred as direct results of the initiative

3/4/2009