Connecting with your communities

Getting involved with local communities and putting the specific skills of its employees into good use is the philosophy behind Nokia Siemens Networks' Corporate Social Responsibility program. From fund-raising to technical support to voluntary work by staff, the company is using its resources and capabilities to help others.

When natural disasters strike, communications can literally make a life or death difference to relief efforts by helping people in distress, and by enabling effective coordination of the emergency response. As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy, Nokia Siemens Networks is committed to providing technical expertise to ensure availability of communications in disaster situations.

Yet this is just one aspect of the CSR program. While major disasters capture the world's headlines, Nokia Siemens Networks also puts much work at other times into helping to connect communities and improving access to education. The culture of social responsibility extends throughout the company, with employees actively volunteering and contributing to the well-being of the communities they work in.

On these pages we look at some recent contributions that Nokia Siemens Networks and its staff have made to communities around the world.

Three pillars of a CSR strategy

Nokia Siemens Networks has built a CSR strategy that focuses on three programs:

Unite and connect communities: providing new solutions for rural connectivity to help connect the next billion, and to support their social and economic development.

Disaster relief and preparedness: working with its parent companies (Nokia and Siemens) to provide technical expertise in disaster situations.

Improve access to education: creating initiatives that improve education opportunities, contributing sustainably to improved educational outcomes.

In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks often encourages employee donations by matching them one-for-one during crisis situations.

Dedication shines out after China earthquake

When one of the most damaging earthquakes in modern times struck Sichuan Province in China on May 12th 2008, killing tens of thousands of people and injuring many more, vital communications were also knocked out. Networks in Chengdu, Chongqing and Zhengzhou were paralyzed by the quake. According to reports, some 2,300 base stations were hit by power outages and transmission failures.

Nokia Siemens Networks reacted instantly, working with its customers in the region to assess the extent of the network damage and setting up a 24-hour on-site service to support operations. After ten days of continuous work, networks of key Nokia Siemens Networks accounts across the region were restored.

The dedication of staff to the task is highlighted by the efforts of three Nokia Siemens Networks services engineers, Lu Zhiheng, Xiong Shunli and Shen Kun, who put aside their personal concerns and travelled to the quake-hit region. Despite frequent aftershocks and no contact with colleagues or families, the team stayed at the disaster scene to check every switch and devise emergency solutions.

At the same time, a fund-raising drive by 3,000 Nokia Siemens Networks employees achieved nearly 90,000 USD of donations in just eight hours, which the company matched, totalling 180,000 USD sent to the Red Cross Society of China.

Helping with school work in Ethiopia and India

Nokia Siemens Networks has taken an active role in supporting schools in Ethiopia and India.

Together with parent company Nokia, the organization has pledged long-term support for infrastructure and skills development for a school in Aleltu, a small Ethiopian village. Local employees have volunteered to dedicate one day per month at the school to help with teaching and other pupil support.

In addition, the company is working on bringing communications technology within reach of local children through its Village Connection solution. Nokia Siemens Networks is also supporting the setting up of a vocational training center to enhance students' skills to help them obtain jobs and become entrepreneurs.

In a similar scheme in India, Nokia Siemens Networks is partnering with the Bharti Foundation to inaugurate a school in Punjab. The Satya Bharti School Program is an innovative public-private partnership that aims to bring high-quality education to poor, out-of-school, migrant and female children.

As well as funding to help build the school, Nokia Siemens Networks encourages its employees in offices throughout India to help the school on-site or develop teaching materials and computer-aided games for the children.

Lending a helping hand in Germany

Severely handicapped individuals in Munich are benefiting from a community involvement initiative championed by Nokia Siemens Networks in Germany with an organization created by the parents of the handicapped that provides a school, a care center and a sheltered workshop.

During their time at school and in the care center, important and meaningful relationships develop. However, leaving school and making the shift into adulthood has often disconnected these people from each other - despite the efforts of the employees of the facilities.

Two projects in the scheme aim to fix this - 'Meeting Point' and 'Be Connected.' With help from volunteer staff, 'Meeting Point' entails the creation of an active and friendly outdoor venue to give people the opportunity to get together and relax with friends.

Meanwhile, 'Be Connected' calls for up to 20 volunteers to dedicate time between October and December 2008 to develop a network that connects the care center and the school, to help maintain long-standing friendships. Special communications equipment such as webcams and custom made keyboards will be provided to help staying in touch and to experience new ways of communication.