Our Group's community mission is to enable the inclusion and well-being of people through digital and infocomm technologies.

Going forward, we will continue to leverage our core strengths and that of our staff, be it in specific technological capabilities or skills or financial support, to provide the most impactful support to our communities.

HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE

For more than a decade, we have been championing the cause of children and youths with special needs in Singapore through the Singtel Touching Lives Fund (STLF). Since the Fund's inception in 2002, we have raised close to S$28 million to help this community segment.

This past year, we raised S$2.75 million through activities supported by the company, our employees, business partners and the public. In addition to cash donations, our staff gave their time generously – organising more than 20 activities and spending more than 5,000 hours volunteering to support our beneficiaries: APSN Chaoyang School, APSN Tanglin School, Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore School, Eden School, MINDS Lee Kong Chian Gardens School and the Singapore Cancer Society's Help the Children and Youth Programme.

Under our Optus Community Grants programme, which provides up to A$10,000 for projects providing education, well-being or technology access for young Australians, we have disbursed almost A$1.2 million to 200 youth-focused community organisations over the past six years.

Another key initiative is partnering The Smith Family to improve young people's education in Australia. The Smith Family Mobile Student2Student programme helps students improve their reading skills via mobile phone. This programme targets disadvantaged young people in remote areas without fixed-line access. At the end of 2013, more than 93% of participating students showed improvements in their reading abilities since the start of the programme.

In September 2013, we introduced yes4Good, a one-stop online portal for Optus staff to donate their time or money to charities and causes the are passionate about. The company supports our people's giving by matching up to A$100 per person each year whether they give time or money.

Providing skilled volunteering is one way we can utilise our people's skills to build capacity in charity organisations and assist them in achieving their goals. As an experienced Lean Six Sigma organisation, the Optus Customer Experience team developed the Limelight pathway to provide pro-bono services to non-profit organisations that help add value to their business. Optus staff volunteered 153 hours through the programme in FY2014.

HELPING OUT IN TOUGH TIMES

Disasters are unpredictable. But at the Singtel Group, our coordinated efforts are planned to be responsive and effective to help our customers and the local community in times of need.

After Typhoon Haiyan ripped through the Philippines in November 2013, Singtel made a combined corporate and staff-funded donation of more than S$170,000. Optus also contributed 150 satellite phones to our regional mobile associate, Globe, to facilitate communication. In April 2014, 20 volunteers from Singtel and Optus travelled to the Philippines to help rebuild a village that was destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan, together with staff volunteers from Globe.

We also promptly stepped up when the bushfires in New South Wales, Australia struck in October 2013 to support customers in the affected areas. We waived disconnection fees and offered a call diversion service from landlines to mobiles at no cost. Free prepaid phones and SIM cards were made available in the stricken Blue Mountains and Richmond areas. We also supported the Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery effort by setting up an SMS donation system, enabling the public to make A$5 donations to support the relief efforts.