Tigo And Reach For Change Awards Us$ 75,000 To Each Of Two Winners Of The 3rd Edition Of Reach For Change Social Entrepreneurship Initiative
Tigo Ghana's Corporate Social Responsibility entrepreneurship initiative, which started months ago for the search of brilliant ideas to positively impact the lives of children finally ended at Novotel Hotel in Accra on 25th January, 2013.
This was the third edition of the Tigo Reach for Change programme and the second in 2012. From July, 2012, adverts were placed on traditional and social media for applications to send in their applications. By November, 2012, a total of 1,018 applications had been received. Volunteer readers, and employees of Tigo were requested to peer review the proposals; an exercise that shrunk the number to 287. This was further reduced to 56 applications until the latter part of 2012 when a group of 19 experts evaluated the competing 56 proposals and further reduced it to 10 for the semi-final interview.
The semi-final stage of the competition took off on a promising note. For some of the entrepreneurs, it was their second time of applying to the programme, while others were fresh applicants. The applicants came in turns, ignited with the passion of their ideas; each one sought to convince the jury for selection for the finals, yet the road to the finals could only contain five people.
Five finalists made it to the grand finale of the program, with all five creating brilliant moments for the panel of judges to think about. After a highly competitive process, a jury including the General Manager of Tigo Ghana, Adil El Youssefi, Ama Lartey, African Regional Manager for Reach for Change, and the Head of Corporate Responsibility, Millicom International, Ase Bergstedt and four others unanimously pronounced Peter Gyamfi Kwarteng, a medical doctor at the Tamale Teaching Hospital and James Kofi Annan, President of Challenging Heights winners after impressing the judges with their ideas. Peter will be working on Neonatal network support systems to improve the well-being of children especially newborns while James will attend to rescuing children from child trafficking, child slavery and child labour.
The individuals selected will receive tools and support to develop and expand their ideas. They will each receive a salary funding of US$25,000 a year for 3 years to allow them to focus full time on developing their ideas and activities. But equally important is the support from some outstanding Tigo employees to help scale and develop their ideas so it becomes financially self-sustainable.
Presenting the awards, the GM of Tigo Ghana, Adil El Youssefi mentioned that,"Tigo as a company strives to identify and support societal needs that are sustainable to impact the life of children in Ghana. The programme has been successful since its introduction and we will continue to support communities that are deprived and individuals with ideas to help improve the lives of children."
Thanking Tigo and the Reach for Change team on behalf of the winners, Peter Kwarteng expressed his gratitude and was full of praise for the initiative taken by Tigo. "Today, I have come for a pack of the smile fever and this gesture by Tigo will be revealed for all to see especially for the people of Tamale and those suffering child trafficking, labour and slavery. One day these kids will be liberated with a wide smile on their faces", he said.