Social Responsibility

CHARITY: CONSISTENT APPROACH

Our charitable activities reflect the specifics of MegaFon’s business and promote the strengthening of social ties and elimination of gaps between separate social groups. Over the 20 years of MegaFon’s corporate history, charity has become an integral part of the Company’s life and a priority for social responsibility.

The Company’s charitable activities pursue two objectives: to provide consistent and effective support in solving pressing social problems in Russia based on our professional knowledge and experience, and to promote “smart charity” by helping Russian foundations and NGOs effectively engage with the business community.

MegaFon’s charitable initiatives are structured along three main lines:

1. helping orphans and children deprived of parental care (10–21 y.o.);
2. supporting people with disabilities;
3. aiding disaster victims.

Our approach to social investments is underpined by eight principles:

1. We use a consistent approach to charity that allows us to arrange our work efficiently, plan future charitable activities and deliver on our promises.
2. MegaFon’s charity programmes should bring maximum benefits to their target audiences.
3. The Company puts emphasis on the long-term benefits of charity work; therefore, we focuse on selected areas and concentrate our efforts accordingly.
4. We maintain a transparent system of financing, where all the Company’s expenses are confirmed by expense reports and accounting documents, which guarantees that all donations are spent as intended.
5. We only work with reputable foundations and NGOs.
6. Our priorities are with regional projects or federal projects that benefit several regions where our help is most needed.
7. We welcome the involvement in charity projects of other companies and work to attract funds from private donors via online crowdfunding resources.
8. We support volunteer initiatives by our employees and take pride in their work.

In 2015, we continued our efforts to arrange the Company’s charitable activities in a consistent manner. We strive to increase the transparency of our initiatives, paying special attention to the quality and effectiveness of projects, as well as their compliance with our objective of consistency. Set up in 2013, the Company’s Charity Committee reviews and approves projects, monitors their implementation and assesses the social effect. We also promote the creation of an effective donor community in Russia by raising the competence of NGOs and teaching them to interact efficiently with the business community.

Thus, in February 2015, MegaFon organised the first Dobro (Kindness) conference to share best practices and methods for fundraising, management of NGOs, and interaction with the business community. The conference brought together representatives of 105 foundations and NGOs from 34 Russian regions who were given a chance to present their projects to the Russian business community. Mail.ru Group and Metalloinvest acted as partners for the conference. The conference received extensive positive feedback from participants and is expected to become an annual event.

In 2015, MegaFon worked together with 166 foundations and NGOs to support 58 projects with a total budget of approx. RUB 180 m. These projects helped 21,000 people in 120 cities across Russia.

In April 2015, we signed a cooperation agreement with Planeta.ru, one of the first and most popular crowdfunding platforms in Russia. Under the MegaFon Helps programme, if charitable foundations can raise 25% of the amount required for the implementation of a social project on Planeta.ru, MegaFon will then contribute the remaining 75%. As at the end of 2015, 18 projects had been presented on the platform, of which 11 were successfully implemented; a total of RUB 13.2 m was raised, including donations of RUB 3.3 m. Every tenth out of more than 15,000 visitors to the web pages dedicated to projects within the MegaFon Helps programme made a donation, the average donation being RUB 2,250.

HELPING ORPHANS

MegaFon’s charity programmes for orphans and children deprived of parental care are targeted at children and youths aged between 10 and 21 and provide a comprehensive programme of support: establishing social contacts through sports, culture, and social integration; and raising the level of education and providing vocational guidance and support to foster home graduates.

In 2015, we supported 18 projects helping 9,300 children, with a total budget of about RUB 64 m.

One of the most efficient and high-profile projects in this area is an open Russian football championship among children from orphanages and foster homes, operating under the moniker “The Future Depends on You”. In addition, MegaFon has implemented a number of similar projects:

• Building Life Together – cross-regional interactive trainings and competitions based on the concept of social planning.
• Support to foster home graduates – courses helping young people prepare for independent life through apprenticeships, psychological rehabilitation and development of communication skills, as well asvocational guidance and assistance in entering educational institutions. MegaFon also supported the development and implementation of the Guide to Life mobile application that helps orphanage and foster home graduates across Russia quickly find answers to pressing questions and successfully adapt to independent life in society.
• Sociocultural and educational rehabilitation – training in relevant skills and competencies, and provision of further education (additional coaching in school curriculum subjects, assistance in preparation for exams, visits to theatres, museums and exhibitions, hikes, foreign language training).
• Building inclusive playgrounds and sports facilities on the premises of orphanages and foster homes across Russia.

SUPPORTING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

According to the Federal State Statistics Service, as at 1 January 2015, about 13 m people with disabilities lived in Russia (88 people per 1,000 Russian residents), including 605,000 disabled children. Every day they have to overcome dozens of barriers, both in the external environment and in their own world.

As a communications operator, MegaFon is committed to eliminating barriers to communication and integration in society. We believe that people with disabilities are equal members of the society, and all they need is equal opportunities for life and self-fulfilment in the community, in work, studies, and hobbies. Our objective is to help provide such opportunities.

• By helping these people overcome barriers to integration in the society, we solve the problem of limited communication and social contacts, and lack of access to education, mass sporting, cultural and artistic events, as well as employment difficulties.
• By helping them overcome infrastructure barriers , we promote the development of special technologies and services to eliminate digital inequality: we create special information portals and services, organise telethons and provide short codes for fundraising.

In 2015, MegaFon approved 34 projects for more than 10,900 people with disabilities with a total cost of approx. RUB 67 m.

For over five years MegaFon has been supporting Russian paralympic sports. Since 2011, we have been general partner for the Russian national ice-sledge hockey team. International wheelchair tennis tournaments (MegaFon Dream Cup, Zelenograd Open – Pervaya Raketka and Moscow Cup Open), held each year jointly with the Tennis Foundation of St Petersburg and the ODA Charity Foundation, give wheelchair athletes the opportunity to score points in an international ranking and succeed at international sports forums.

We have been supporting the Russian Bocce Federation and bocce clubs across the country for the last three years – such projects help discover new talent and train them for high-ranking competitions. In 2015, almost 1,500 people from over 30 Russian cities took part in ten international and all-Russia tournaments; we have also helped organise six sport and health camps and conduct seven workshops for 380 people.

In addition to supporting paralympic sports, we are engaged in programmes for wheelchair athletes and for rehabilitation of children and adults with disabilities across Russia. We help conduct regular events and competitions in a wide range of sports – from horse riding and track and field to swimming and skiing.

In 2015, MegaFon’s flagship projects for socialisation and adaptation of people with disabilities included:

• “Invisible plays” – unique 5-D performances focused on auditory, kinesthetic, and olfactory sensations produced for visually impaired and blind children.
• Publication of sets of tactile books for visually impaired and blind children.
• Releasing copies of Russian feature films with audio descriptions and special subtitles for blind and deaf people.
• Establishment of an ongoing programme to offer art classes to children with disabilities.
• Creating an inclusive space for interaction – called Communication and Art Clubs – in ten Russian cities.
• Summer recreation programmes for children with special developmental needs, involving volunteers.
• Organising sports adaptation and leisure activities for disabled children.
• Improving the quality of life for oncology patients and their families; setting up a permanent office and a School for Patients.
• Labour and vocational adaptation, training and employment for people with disabilities.

Programmes for people with disabilities aimed at eliminating barriers to their integration in society have been another important priority for MegaFon for many years. We have developed special tariffs for subscribers with hearing impairments and launched a dedicated website for people with impaired vision. In 2015, we launched two new projects in the Ural region with the objective of setting up a dispatcher service employing professional translators for more than 3,000 people with hearing disabilities, and to increase social and professional engagement of more than 3,000 people with sight disabilities.

MegaFon’s activities in this area also include supporting a number of projects to create a favourable environment in facilities offering long-term treatment for severely ill children and to attract funding to cover the treatment. MegaFon’s joint project with the Independent Non-Profit Organisation Hospital Clowns and the Happiness Lessons project in the Far East have helped speed up rehabilitation of children by means of hospital clowning, play therapy, fairy tale therapy, creative classes and outdoor trips. The We Can Do It Together project enables treatment to be arranged for severely ill children in the Sverdlovsk region through charity telethons, while the MegaFon Gives Hope project helps raise money for emergency procedures, medication and other forms of medical care for children with oncology conditions. In addition, MegaFon provides short codes for fundraising in support of severely ill children across Russia.

SUPPORT TO EDUCATION AND CULTURAL PROJECTS

For over seven years, MegaFon has been helping the Polytechnic Museum in the renovation and restoration of its historical building, the development of architectural projects, and updating existing and arranging new exhibitions, as well as supporting educational programmes and youth projects. In 2015, MegaFon supported the following Museum projects: Open Storage, Science Film Festival 360°, Polytech.Science.Art, the 200 Keystrokes per Minute exhibition, the Polytech Festival, and the edition of the annual Calendar of Significant Dates.

Another MegaFon’s cultural initiative has been facilitating the production of several new performances for the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre.

CORPORATE VOLUNTEERING

Our charitable activities are an integral part of our corporate culture and the life of our people. Our volunteers do a lot of good work, making blood donations, helping orphanages, conducting lessons in mobile literacy, and providing higher educational institutions with technical equipment. MegaFon is proud of its volunteers and gives them full-fledged organisational support.

EMERGENCIES

As a leading Russian mobile operator, MegaFon is aware of its responsibilities in case of national emergencies or force-majeure circumstances. We are always among the first to come to aid of people who suffered in such situations both in and outside of Russia.

In 2015, MegaFon provided help in two major emergencies. In April 2015, major grass fires hit Khakassia, leaving 5,000 people homeless, 15 dead, and 1,300 houses damaged. MegaFon provided targeted aid of RUB 10 m to those affected by these fires.

31 October 2015 brought the worst disaster in the history of Russia’s civil aviation when an airliner crashed in the middle of the Sinai peninsula killing 224 people. MegaFon cancelled all charges for calls to contact phone numbers for relatives of the crash victims.

MEGAFONLIVE FESTIVAL

In addition to our charitable activities, our corporate social responsibilities also include organising large-scale cultural events. In 2015, one of such events – the MEGAFONLIVE Festival – received unprecedented public approval. This unique nationwide interactive music festival ran from 15 August to 26 September in ten Russian cities and involved famous Russian rock musicians from across the country. It offered the absolutely unique experience for Russia of having two performances at the same time in two cities linked up live using high-speed MegaFon Internet.

The idea of the festival was to unite people with similar interests from different corners of the country. MegaFon truly brought hundreds of thousands of people closer together in Moscow, St Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk, Chelyabinsk, Samara, and Kazan. Just as MegaFon unites people across Russia, the MEGAFONLIVE concerts united people from different cities. MegaFon also made sure that access to the music and fun wasunhindered and organised a special zone for more than 100 guests with disabilities.

CHARITY IN NUMBERS