Islands Business - Huawei corporate social responsibility fund to target Pacific Islands

SYDNEY, Australia (IT WIRE) ---- Huawei Technologies has created a $A100,000 fund for corporate social responsibility work in the Pacific Islands, with a volunteer school in the Solomon Islands receiving the first funding. Huawei - which has just announced completion of the rollout of the first stage of the Solomon Islands' second mobile network, for Bemobile - says it will donate new equipment, school materials and teacher training to The Mercy Learning Centre in Honiara at a total cost of $A10,000. “Huawei staff have forged links with the school while working in the Solomon Islands, and hope to see Huawei’s contribution to Mercy Learning Centre create new opportunities for underprivileged children in the area,” said Huawei Australia CEO, Guo Fulin. “With every new project we undertake in the Pacific Islands, Huawei is increasingly a part of local communities and we've been overwhelmed by the way locals welcome our staff.” A Huawei spokesman told iTWire that the fund was largely a Huawei Australia initiative. “Huawei's Sydney office has been driving the creation of a $100,000 Corporate Social Responsibility fund from which Huawei will contribute to good causes around the Pacific Islands region,” he said. “Most of our Pacific Islands projects start off in the Sydney office…[and] a lot of Huawei's Australia-based team spend their time in the local communities in the Pacific Islands, alongside the 'on the ground' teams in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji, and the project managers have been working to help the local communities in those countries.” The Mercy Learning Centre was started five years ago by a teacher, Beverly Komasi, struck by the plight of young children who spent their days sifting through rubbish at the nearby Ranandi dump, and decided to create a school staffed by local volunteers. Today, Mercy Learning Centre has 438 students from Kindergarten to Form 5 (6th Grade), and 15 unpaid, untrained teachers on hand operating from just one classroom. Three new classrooms are currently under construction.