Today, the United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation) and The Vodafone Group Foundation (VGF), announce a five-year plan to fund Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF). This funding will enable the humanitarian NGO to send rapid response telecoms teams with the latest telecommunications technology to support UN emergency response missions worldwide within 48 hours of a disaster.

The UN Foundation and VGF will provide approximately USUSD 2 million (GBP 1.06 million) to TSF over five years, making expert telecoms teams available in coordination with two UN agencies, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Through the UN's Rapid Response Communications Centre, up to four TSF teams will deploy with the UN to natural disasters and humanitarian crises anywhere in the world. These teams of telecom experts will be among the first to drop into emergency areas and will rapidly establish and maintain emergency telecommunication centres that provide NGOs, the UN and government responders with reliable voice, Internet, fax, and video connections using satellite, WiFi, and GSM equipment. Relief workers rely on these centers for response and relief assessment, logistics, and coordination.

Ann M. Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF, said: "The challenges facing humanitarian organisations in emergencies are vast. Everyone understands the need for food, water, shelter and medical help. Fewer understand that none of this is possible without reliable telecom services to facilitate swift and effective resource deployment. By establishing these services faster, this program will save lives."

Jean-François Cazenave, Co-founder and President of TSF, said: "We are pleased to be a part of this partnership to continue our work. Today, new technologies, the miniaturization of components and the increasing development of satellite networks enable highly mobile teams to respond to emergency communication needs in all circumstances, anywhere in the world."

UN Foundation President, Timothy E. Wirth, said "This collaboration is a perfect example of how the United Nations Foundation can foster public-private partnerships that pair valuable resources, knowledge, and experience of organizations with the lifesaving work of the UN. This initiative offers the UN the ability to respond quickly to humanitarian needs in a smart, cost-effective way."

Andrew Dunnett, Director of the Vodafone Group Foundation, said: "Vodafone is committed to changing lives in communities across the world. The partnership with UN Foundation and TSF enables us to share our charitable funds, our expertise and our technology. We look forward to its transforming effect and the tangible benefits it will bring to some of the most needy and desperate situations on earth."

VGF-UNF funded teams have already deployed four times to assist the UN in 2006:

• In May to support a response mission after torrential flooding in Suriname
• In June to Indonesia in response to a massive 6.2 earthquake
• In August to support the UN humanitarian mission under the UN's Emergency Telecom Cluster in Lebanon
• Again in August to reestablish telecom services to support the UN humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo following the disarmament that allowed humanitarian assistance to resume and the displaced population to return to their homes

For more information, please contact Melissa Heyn or Vicky Argles on 020 7403 2230 or email Melissa@forster.co.uk, vicky@forster.co.uk

Notes to Editors

The UN Foundation was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner's historic USD 1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities. The UN Foundation builds and implements public-private partnerships to address the world's most pressing problems, and also works to broaden support for the UN through advocacy and public outreach. The UN Foundation is a public charity. For more information on the UN Foundation, visit www.unfoundation.org

The Vodafone Group Foundation was created by Vodafone in 2001 to support charitable and community work by all Vodafone companies and their Foundations, as well as funding selected charitable global initiatives directly. It is a charitable Foundation with its own board of trustees. To date, the Foundations have invested a total of over GBP 60 million in social investments globally. For more information on The Vodafone Group Foundation, visit www.vodafone.com

Télécoms Sans Frontières is the leading humanitarian NGO specialised in emergency telecommunications. With its 24-hour monitoring centre and relying on its regional bases in Nicaragua and in Thailand, TSF logistics workers and technical aid crews can intervene anywhere in the world less than 48 hours after any catastrophe or a conflict and in a matter of minutes set up an operational centre on site. This centre enables aid work to be coordinated and offers support and assistance to victim populations, giving them a link with the outside world from which they would be otherwise completely cut off. For further information on Télécoms Sans Frontières, visit www.tsfi.org