Ericsson Lebanon’s Beirut office provided help to volunteers from Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) who arrived in the summer of 2006 to set up emergency telecommunication services in the war-ravaged nation. Ericsson in Beirut secured accommodation for TSF volunteers and provided office space in the Ericsson facility where aid workers had access to phone and Internet services, as well as other office support.

The TSF volunteers were invited to use the Ericsson office for as long as necessary before moving into areas where their help was most needed. With Ericsson’s half a century of business experience in Lebanon, we were able to provide vital insight into the local situation and an immediate response in an emergency situation.

Ericsson North America, NASDAQ and several leading investment banks sponsored a fundraiser in 2006 to aid victims of the violence in Darfur. “Genocide Emergency: Darfur, Sudan” was organized by the US Holocaust Museum's Next Generation Board, which fights against genocide. Images from the genocide in Darfur were displayed on the NASDAQ MarketSite screen in Times Square to raise public awareness of the tragedy.

Ericsson helped create the Anna Lindh Professorship at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University to honor the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs assassinated in 2003. In 2006, Samantha Power, author of Pulitzer-prize winning book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide and professor of public policy, became the first recipient of the professorship.

Encouraging young entrepreneurs is the aim of the Ego Programme, an initiative of Ericsson in Italy since 2004. The program helps university students develop micro start-up companies and transform university projects into successful businesses in the telecommunications and ICT field. It is a partnership with the Italian government, the city of Rome, and three universities. The Ericsson Ego companies launch their ideas on the market supported by Ericsson resources and brand.

In 2006, the first Ego University Innovation Prize was awarded, and the Lars Magnus Foundation was established, designed to further Ericsson’s involvement in social issues, such as promoting scientific and cultural developments, as well as education and professional training in the ICT field.

In São Paulo, Brazil, nearly 200 youths have the opportunity for a fresh start through the Jovem Parceiro Program (Young Partner Program), sponsored by Ericsson. The program, initiated in 2000, is targeted at teenagers at social or personal risk, who have been expelled from home or been victims of violence or poverty. The aim is to help them to develop autonomy, responsibility and independence and to enlarge their future perspective.

The goal of the project is to help the teens stay in school or find jobs. To help them do this, Ericsson has involved 60 employees to provide mentoring and support. Once the youths are selected, they enter a one-year program to attend classes or seek employment. The final part of the program consists of one-month vocational orientation.

Ericsson in Australia has joined forces with the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) to encourage the recycling of mobile phones in an ongoing program called Mobile Muster. The aim is to collect old mobile phones and batteries to be melted down and recycled into new products rather than end up in a landfill.

The program collects and recycles mobile phones, batteries and accessories from a network of over 1700 mobile phone retailers, local council, government agencies and business drop-off points across Australia. Employee involvement is encouraged through phone drop off points at all our main sites.