Digicel “In five hours flat”

Digicel continues to reach out to the communities in which they operate.

Last week Friday, May 28, Digicel launched its latest community assistance programme called ‘In five hours flat’.{{more}} The programme was launched on Union Island in the form of a community clean up competition.

Explaining the ‘In five hours flat’ initiative, Digicel’s Country Manager, Sonia Polius, said that Digicel is aiming to have staff members go into the various communities and assist with projects that can be carried out “in a day or preferably in or around five hours”. She added that Digicel will assist with these small projects by also making a monetary contribution as well as getting some of their other corporate partners involved. Community groups or individuals can submit project ideas to Digicel. The projects will be undertaken every two months, while the ‘In five hours flat’ initiative will end at the end of 2010.

Polius added: “The project must be able to be completed in a day and be of benefit to the entire community. Whatever the project it is, it has to be finished in a day, and basically the Digicel team will offer five hours of their time. We will come into the community and help to finish the project as well as provide a monetary contribution and help get various partners in the business community involved”.

She added that it can be any type of project. “It can be one that has already begun and need extra assistance. As long as we think it has value to the community we will do it, but it must be a small project that can be finished at the end of the day”.

Last Friday during the project launch, a Digicel team led by Polius and Marketing Manager, Juno DeRoche, helped with the clean-up campaign on Union Island.

During the project’s launch, Founder and President of an Environmental group called the Union Island Environmental Attackers, Katrina Collins, explained that this year, because of Digicel’s assistance, their annual clean-up campaign was done in an even bigger way. The competition was organized by the Union Island Environmental Attackers.

“We chose to have a best village competition with the aim of getting people more conscious of the environment so that they could be a part of taking care of it”.

The best village competition saw some nine groups vying for the top prize of EC$1800, a challenge trophy, a best village sign and garbage cans. The competition was won by the village Jerome. Sugar Hill was second and Bigsand, third. The winners all received garbage bins for their communities. Other sponsors included Mountain Top Spring Water, Karib Cable and the Sustainable Grenadines Project.

Collins said that the competition was a success, thanks to Digicel’s support. She added: “We seem to be crying out these days about global warming, climate change and things like that, so we did this competition in a way that we can get people more conscious about the environment and take part in what is going on”.

“Digicel has been very community oriented. They are involved in Easterval and Carnival on the island, and by taking part in community projects they will send a positive message to the wider community”, stated Collins.