Vodafone’s World of Difference programme is paying the salaries of two volunteers while they spend two months working for the telephone conferencing social enterprise, Community Network. The volunteers, Kate Owen and Eirini Koukaki, both have a background in telecommunications and will support the two distinct areas of Community Network’s operation.
Community Network works to tackle isolation and social exclusion by setting up and running telephone support and befriending groups. Much of this charitable work is funded by the surplus profits from the telephone conferencing services it supplies to the voluntary sector.
Eirini will be working with the teleconferencing sales and marketing department on competitor analysis and strategy; while Kate will support the organisation’s Social Inclusion Team in running existing projects, as well as identifying new groups of people who feel excluded from society and who may benefit from telephone support and social groups. Both volunteers begin working with Community Network in January.
“I feel really excited as it’s a great opportunity for me to help a charity as well as gain invaluable experience,” says Eirini.
Kate says: “I had already started my teleconference training so I'm pleased to be sponsored by Vodafone to continue my work with the charity.”
The World of Difference programme currently operates in 14 countries across the world. In 2010 the programme is financially supporting 500 volunteer placements throughout the UK and eight volunteers who will spend a year working for charities abroad. World of Difference is an initiative set up by the Vodafone Foundation, a registered charity that has invested £100 million in charitable projects around the world since 2002.
