The Vodafone Group Foundation has agreed to donate £1 million over the next two years for UNICEF UK's campaign to 'End Child Exploitation' - helping millions of children around the world exploited by adults who abuse their trust. This vital contribution by the Foundation will be used to assist UNICEF's work in combating child trafficking across south eastern Europe.
Child trafficking involves the transportation and exploitation of unwilling or unknowing victims, often for sex work. Worldwide, over a million children are trafficked each year and UNICEF, with the support of partners such as the Vodafone Group Foundation, is working internationally to prevent child exploitation from happening in the first place.
"Millions of children all over the world are exploited at the hands of adults each year," said Robbie Williams, UNICEF UK Special Representative. "We all have a role to play in preventing this abuse of innocent young lives and I am delighted that the Vodafone Group Foundation has agreed to support UNICEF's campaign to put an end to child exploitation. Their contribution of £1 million will be invaluable," he added.
Over the next two years, the Vodafone Group Foundation will play a crucial role in supporting a co-ordinated approach to end child trafficking in South-Eastern Europe. The £1 million contribution will be used by UNICEF teams in the region to develop and implement initiatives which promote closer cross-border co-operation between authorities, ultimately reducing the number of children who are trafficked in the area. It will also support activities to raise awareness of the problem amongst families and communities, as well as publicising and running SOS helplines for those children who have already fallen prey to the traffickers.
John Logan, Director of the Vodafone Group Foundation comments: "This is the Foundation's biggest donation to date in the area of human rights and fully supports our mandate of sharing the benefits of mobile telephony whilst tackling some of the challenges within society. As well as our desire to offer financial support to UNICEF to stop child trafficking, our leading edge mobile technology will also be used to improve the efficiency of this vital work."
In addition to the financial donation, the Foundation has agreed to provide mobile technology to support the SOS helplines which have been established in the region. In the long term, this will also help to enable border patrols to communicate directly with local NGOs so that trafficked children, who have been located and returned to the border of their home countries, can be offered immediate protection and support. "You just need to look at the figures to realise the full horror of what we are talking about with more than a million children trafficked annually worldwide - and there is reason to suspect that thousands end up in the UK every year," said David Bull, Executive Director of UNICEF UK. "Trafficking is a serious abuse of child rights and is the fastest growing business of organised crime, since it is seen as less risky than trafficking drugs."
"We are extremely grateful to the Vodafone Group Foundation for its support for our work in putting an end to child exploitation," he concluded.
The Vodafone Group Foundation was set up in 2002. Guided by the Vodafone Group Social Investment Policy, the Vodafone Group Foundation focuses on sharing the benefits of mobile communications technology as widely as possible, whilst endeavouring to protect the environment, supporting sustainable business practices and supporting the local communities in which Vodafone's customers, employees, investors and suppliers live. It also makes donations to the 16 local foundations of the Vodafone Group operating companies, including the Vodafone UK Foundation.
For further information:
Email: groupfoundation@vodafone.com