Friday May 21^st, 2010 – Port Moresby, PNG: Digicel, together with its staff in Port Moresby, have taken the initiative to join the fight against the cholera outbreak in the city.

 Digicel staff donated bars of soap and hand sanitizers in special donation boxes placed at the Digicel head office in Gordons for this important cause.

 Digicel Foundation CEO Marina van der Vlies comments:

 “The move against cholera is merged into the Digicel Foundation monthly Community Learning Centre (CLC) visits where Digicel staff volunteers go out to different settlement areas within the city to motivate each CLC to work towards improving the quality of learning and increasing the community involvement in their CLC thereby improving the standard of living in their community”.

 “As settlement communities are rated as high-risk cholera areas within the city, it would be good to start preventative measures to contain or halt the disease altogether within the community. It takes a collective effort to counter attack this epidemic. Therefore, involving everyone in Digicel not only shows our support for this cause but will hopefully also make a difference in minimizing the spread of this disease within our community”, she added.

 "The monthly Community Learning Centre (CLC) visits are part of the “Adopt a CLC Programme” providing Digicel staff with an opportunity to support a CLC in their community.

Over the next few weeks each department will visit their respective adopted CLC’s around the settlements of Port Moresby and donate soap and hand sanitizer as well as distribute information to help prevent the spread of cholera. For the first planned visit to the CLC in Badihagwa a donation of clean plates, cups, a water cooler and other kitchen utensils will also be handed out to ensure that the ongoing childrens feeding programme can be continued in a hygienic way. 

All communities are encouraged to use their CLC facilities, as a community resource for pre- and elementary school, adult literacy, skilled-based training, cooking and sewing for women, and HIV/AIDS awareness depending on the specific needs of the community. 

The Digicel Foundation especially recognizes those communities that are active in helping themselves with the little resources they have. The Digicel Foundation’s main focus is to initiate projects that will provide opportunities and inspire a positive and vibrant future for the communities within PNG. The Digicel Foundation believes that as the Digicel Company grows, the communities in PNG should grow as well.

 To date the Digicel Foundation has funded 40 Community Learning Centres, 10 primary school and 18 elementary school infrastructure projects, two Mobile Health Clinics, two Meri Seif Haus projects and one Family Support Centre. The Digicel Foundation plans to continue the funding of community projects in the area of education aiming to support communities as they hopefully become more self-reliant in the future.