"Call to Mum" Programme

Connecting hospitalised children with their families 

Organisation Name

Telekomunikacja Polska

Problem

Telekomunikacja Polska (TP), being focused on helping children through its charity programmes, has realised that more than 1.5 million children are hospitalised in Poland every year. Parents are not always able to be with their child during the period of hospitalisation. Some of them are not able to visit the hospital due to a a lack of financial resources. Talking over the telephone is sometimes the only potential way for parents to keep in contact with their child. 

Solution

  • TP decided to launch a free payphone service, providing the opportunity for family members to stay in contact and alleviate some distress during the hospitalisation period.
  • TP looked for ways to help these families, by using its financial resources and its core competencies.
  • The initial assumption was that the project should have a clear social goal and should be closely connected with the competence profile of TP as a telecommunications company.
  • It was to have a country-wide, long-term outreach and involve various company resources.
  • Project proposals were prepared in consultation with hospital staff (nurses, doctors) before implementation.
  • The effect of this preliminary work is the "Call to Mum" programme. TP has installed special colourful, child-friendly payphones in hospitals in childrens wards. These enable children to make calls free of charge (dedicated phone cards are distributed by nurses for free). They are also accessible for children in wheel-chairs.
  • All the childrens hospitals in Poland were invited to join this programme. Currently, 1,048 "Telephones to Mum" operate all over Poland, which means that almost 100% of childrens hospitals are equipped.
  • About 500,000 children have already used up to 305,000 phone cards and talked with their family members for over 10 million minutes.
  • Simultaneously, TP offers its employees a voluntary work programme. The realisation of the project "A Call to Mum" involves employees from various fields of the company's operations. The project has 36 permanent volunteers – TP employees who manage the distribution of phone cards to children in those hospitals.
  • A greater number of volunteers – approximately 300 – participate in various projects such as Santa Clause Presents or assistance in renovating hospital wards. Volunteers are prepared and trained by the Association Centre of Voluntary Work.
  • Periodically, the company organises meetings to analyse the results of the programme and to reward employees who participated in it. Additionally, through its internal channels of communication, the company distributes information about the programme and volunteer activities.

Constraints

  • Involvement of various departments of the company which are not normally involved in social projects.
  • Providing technical assistance and infrastructure for the country-wide project.

Benefits

  • The project boosts the reputation of TP.
  • The project received visibility and positive feedback from both the company’s employees and the public.
  • 20% of respondents spontaneously cited TP among the companies helping children and 52% agreed with the statement that the company "initiates and supports projects important for children” (a year ago it was only 36%).
  • In May 2005, nearly 55% of respondents named TP "a socially responsible company”.
  • The project was given many prestigious awards. Among others, in 2004 it was considered the best PR campaign in the category of Corporate PR by the Association of PR Companies in Poland Złote spinacze; the company was given the title of The Philanthropist of the Year 2004, awarded by the Academy For Development of Philanthropy in the category of "strategic programs of the company’s social involvement"; and it received the IPRA Golden World Awards for Excellence in PR in the CSR category.

Period Of Implementation

2006 - 2007

Place Of Implementation

Poland

More Information

http://www.tp.pl/prt/pl/o_tp/social_projects/tel_do_mamy

Themes

Skills and Competence Building
Stakeholder Engagement

Solution Champion

Please login to view this information