With the support of its customers, COSMOTE Romania will offer up to 40,000 euro to children NGOs, during the Custom of Love campaign

COSMOTE Romania announces that part of the revenues from the SMSes sent in one of the most joyful occasions of the year - New Year's Day 2013 - will be offered by COSMOTE Romania to children in need. During the "Custom of Love” campaign, a traditional social responsibility programme of the operator, the financial contribution of up to 40,000 euro will be directed to a number of up to 8 non-governmental organizations and charities that provide care and relief to underprivileged and/or sick children. 

"For the 5th year in a row, we are proud to involve our customers in one of our soul projects and thus support, once again, projects designed to the benefit of children in need. We have a duty to protect and aid children, as they are the future of the society we are now living in. Education and social care for children' development represent two of the main pillars of a healthy society, and we hope that these funds will make a difference for the projects implemented by the soon to be awarded organizations”, stated Ruxandra Voda, Corporate Affairs Senior Manager, COSMOTE Romania.

Starting today, the NGOs that are developing projects for children can apply for funding, by downloading the application and budget forms found within the section "Custom of Love” on the company website, www.cosmote.ro. After filling them with the required information, they have to be sent to csr@cosmote.ro, together with a letter of intent by April 12th, 2013 included.

The NGOs interested to apply have to comply with a set of criteria during the current 5th edition of the "Custom of love” campaign, amongst which:

• to have been established and to work according to the Romanian legislation in force;
• to have at least three years experience in the field of providing nursing, counselling and educational services for sick and underprivileged children;
• to be able to prove, at the request of COSMOTE Romania, the geographical and social addressability (the number of sick and/or underprivileged children for which they develop projects in the fields of education and healthcare);
• to be able to prove at least three educational, care and/or counselling of sick or underprivileged children projects developed from the establishment of the NGO until present;
• to have on-going partnerships with children protection and care institutions etc.;
• to agree to inform the public about the sponsorship as it is permitted by law etc.

The detailed and complete set of criteria is described in Application form. This contains the eligibility criteria for the organizations applying to the social responsibility program Custom of Love 2013. By the means of these transparent criteria, COSMOTE Romania will select up to 8 winners from the applicants, which will receive an amount up to 5,000 euro each. This amount will be used for the educational, care and/or counseling of sick or underprivileged children projects that the selected applicants will develop in 2013, as described in their application. The winners will be announced until May 9th, 2013 within the section "Press Releases” on www.cosmote.ro. 

Last year, almost 29,000 unprivileged children benefited from the support of COSMOTE Romania, through the projects developed in 2012 by the NGOs that were granted 5,000 euro each during the 4th edition of "Custom of Love”. Since the program's launch in 2008, COSMOTE Romania offered, during the first 4 editions, a total of 185,000 euro to 17 non-governmental organizations that care for children. 

As a responsible and active part of the society, COSMOTE Romania is involving its employees, customers, suppliers and business partners in different initiatives and programs which respond to the Romanian social environment requirements. Amongst the social responsibility programs developed by COSMOTE Romania, there are: "Custom of Love - New Year's SMS campaign”, the partnership with the Child's Phone Association, "I love recycling” mobile telephony electronic waste collection program, "Adopt a Forest” planting program, the internal program "Green Office” for protecting the environment and others.