Proximus

Fourty local projects for the disabled and for underprivileged children and people will benefit from the €500.000 budget allocated by Proximus to the projects selected by the 3 jurys of the Proximus Foundation. Of almost 500 applications received, these projects were selected by an independent jury of Belgian celebrities as well as Proximus employees and customers.

The 2006 Proximus Employee Award was presented to non-profit association Kinderrevalidatiecentrum UZ Gent, in Ghent which received the most votes via the Proximus intranet. Every day the Centre treats around 25 children between 0 and 16 years of age with serious locomotor and/or neurological injuries. Their mission is to reintegrate these children into society. In this new project, the children of the Centre are brought into contact with the dolphins of the Boudewijn Seapark in Bruges. Given that these children have serious physical limitations, the transport must take place with an adapted minibus. The project had been submitted by a group of Proximus employees, in partnership with the association.

Proximus employees can indeed submit a project in partnership with the non profit association of their choice. If such a project is selected, the employee can take advantage of time credit (hours that the employee can take from their working time to do volunteer work) varying from 13 to 16 days, in order to be able to contribute on a voluntary basis to a project in the field.

The four non-profit associations voted on by the Proximus customers carry out their projects in various regions:

Furthermore, a panel of Belgian celebrities selected 35 winning projects. The progress of each will be monitored by the Proximus Foundation throughout the year. To find out more, consult www.proximusfoundation.be.

The names and project descriptions of the non profit associations that were selected are enclosed.

In October 2005, the Proximus Foundation launched a call for project proposals among non profit associations operating in the Belgian social sector. The associations were given until mid November 2005 to submit project proposals to the foundation. When the deadline of November 15 arrived, the Proximus Foundation had registered almost 500 applications.

In allocating the total sum of €500,000 and in selecting the winning projects, the Proximus Foundation established three award categories: the Proximus Employee Award (one project – maximum budget - €50,000); the Jury Award (maximum budget - €350,000) and the Customer Award (four projects – maximum budget - €100,000).

The celebrity panel met in early January to make its own selection for the jury prize that would reward 35 initiatives. For the Employee Award, they also chose 75 projects to be eligible for the employee vote that was made possible through the Intranet pages reserved for employees of the Proximus Foundation. Finally, in March 2006, 10 projects were presented to Proximus customers on their monthly bill and on the website of the Proximus Foundation. Once they had made their choice, customers could vote for their favorite project by sending an SMS message free of charge.

Tuesday May 9, 2006 saw the Proximus Foundation gather representatives from the winning non profit associations for the awards ceremony, which was followed by a reception where they had the opportunity to meet Proximus representatives and the five members of the 2006 panel: Dominique Monami (Olympic tennis champion), Ingrid Berghmans (Olympic judo champion), Marlène de Wouters (Flemish television presenter), Claude Delacroix (leading French-language radio personality) and Baudouin Michiels (President of the Management Committee of the Fonds Prince Albert and President of the Belgacom Foundation).

President of the Proximus Board of Directors and Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the Proximus Foundation, Philippe Vander Putten said that it is essential for companies such as Proximus to fulfill their role as a corporate citizen. Besides the Proximus Foundation, other initiatives that the mobile phone operator is involved in include the development of responsible marketing and products and the development of energy and waste management policies, for example. Proximus is also finalizing its second corporate social responsibility report, to be published this June.

The Proximus Foundation is the outcome of a discussion process within the company that had already fostered initiatives in the social, health and environmental fields. For example, Proximus has been offering preferential SMS rates to the deaf and hard of hearing as part of its promise to be more socially committed. The company also regularly sponsors a variety of initiatives, such as Child Focus and the Cedric Foundation. The PC for Schools project is yet another example of this commitment and involves Proximus donating schools computers and printers that have been taken out of service and are no longer part of its computer park.

The main objective of the Proximus Foundation is to provide assistance to people residing in Belgium who are disadvantaged by social exclusion, their age or handicap and to help them to integrate more fully in society. The Proximus Foundation also seeks to promote volunteer work among its employees.

To achieve these objectives, Proximus allocated the Proximus Foundation a total budget of €500,000 for 2006. Projects that are eligible for an award can either be submitted directly to the Foundation by non-profit associations or NGOs recognized by the Ministry of Finance, or by Proximus employees who wish to work in partnership with an association.