Vivendi

Martine Brousse, Director, La Voix de l’Enfant, France
(SDR 2006-2007)

Mobilizing young people

« Mobile telephony continues to surprise us! Wireless communication means that you can talk, send an SMS messages, or send a photo even if you’re in the mountains, at sea, or at the opposite end of the world. But even more, it gives you the brand-new possibility of participating in public generosity by making a single call. With handbills and brochures from charitable causes piling up in our mailboxes, in 2001 SFR had the innovative idea of launching a new way to give without having to look for a pen, your checkbook, or an envelope, simply by entering a 4-digit number like 8649 (“VOIX”) to make a donation to help protect children.
This new way of collecting donations, within everyone’s reach, has shown how generous young people really are. In letters, e-mail messages, and phone calls, they’ve told us how much they approve of this initiative, which gives them a chance to make a donation that suits their limited means quickly and easily. This opportunity of showing their solidarity is quite new to them and shows how eager they are to get involved.
But beyond donations, cell phones have also provided a new response to the numerous cases of young runaways in distress and parents worried about a child’s absence. Finally, with the new technologies opening up new perspectives every day, an SFR WAP portal has been opened with a list of emergency phone numbers for young people. And this year, for the first time anywhere in the world, a program for making appeals for donations by video phone was launched by SFR.
These uses of new technologies have shown that young people are indeed mobilized and are highly committed citizens. »