Help a Child, Recycle Your Old Phone

Mark Linehan, CEO, Digicel Jamaica, (centre) proudly recycles his phone for the benefit of the Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL), while (From Left) Miriam Maluwa, Country Representative (Jamaica, Bahamas & Cuba) UNAID, Stacy-Ann Jarrett, Executive Director, JASL, Marcia Forbes, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Mining and Wayne Miller, Head of Marketing for Digicel Jamaica, patiently await their turn to recycle their phones. The event was the Launch of the Digicel "Help a Child, Recycle Your Old Phone Campaign", held at the Digicel outlet in Tropical Plaza, on Wednesday, August 12.


Digicel Launches Old Phone Recycle Programme

Kingston, Jamaica – Wednesday, August 12, 2009: Digicel, Jamaica’s largest mobile operator has announced the launch of a phone recycle programme, ‘Help a Child, Recycle Your Old Phone’. The aim of the programme is to encourage Jamaicans to recycle unused old mobile phones in an effort to protect the environment and by extension contribute funds raised from the programme to orphaned and vulnerable children affected or infected by HIV/AIDS. The announcement was made during a press launch held at one of Digicel’s flagship dealer stores in Tropical Plaza, Kingston on Wednesday, August 12, 2009.

Mark Linehan, CEO for Digicel, Jamaica expressed that, “Digicel is extremely pleased to be launching this recycling programme, as all Jamaicans can now efficiently dispose of their old mobile phones through recycling. Further to this, the money raised from the recycling process will go to charity. This means that as we protect and preserve our environment we are also contributing to a very worthy cause”.

“We know that there are thousands upon thousands of old cell phones lying around in people’s homes and offices. Yet until today, there was no proper way of disposing of them in Jamaica. Digicel is pleased to be working with a recycling partner to recycle these old mobile phones for sale. The proceeds from the sale of these recycled handsets will then be donated to the Jamaica Aids Support for Life to help to enrich the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS across Jamaica”, added Linehan

The ‘Help a Child, Recycle Your Old Phone’ programme encourages Jamaicans to recycle their old handsets by visiting one of the participating Digicel Dealer stores island-wide and dropping their old phones in the recycle bins provided. “The process is very simple, you just deposit your old handset in recycle bins located in participating Digicel dealer stores island-wide”, added Mark Linehan. “The old handsets will be shipped to the recycling company overseas and unlike other forms of recycling the phones remain intact – they are not broken down to into scrap metals or anything of that sort. Instead they become part of a global trade in mobile phones where the phones are auctioned off by the recycling company to local dealers in these markets who then recondition them. The proceeds from the sale of these handsets will then be donated to the JASL OVC”, explains Mark.

Stacy-Ann Jarrett, Executive Director for the Jamaica AIDS Support for Life calls this programme, a 21st century demonstration of corporate responsibility and innovation in saving the environment and preserving Jamaica’s future. “We congratulate Digicel Jamaica for its forward-thinking step in launching this initiative”, Jarrett added.

Jarrett furthered that, “Funds generated from the Help a Child, Recycle Your Old Phone campaign will be invested in the establishment of a resource centre for orphaned and vulnerable children in Montego Bay; the provision of back to school assistance for one hundred and fifty orphaned and vulnerable children; parenting skills workshop for parents and guardians of children living with HIV/AIDS and workshops in leadership skills and HIV peer education for these children”.

“Emphasis will also be placed on the improvement of literacy, numeracy and general performance in school systems for orphaned and vulnerable children with the funds generated from this campaign. We are very happy that Digicel has taken the initiative to start such an important campaign towards for a greater cause”, closed Jarrett.

The Jamaica AIDS Support for Life Orphaned and Vulnerable Children programme is a body that uses various means to improve the conditions of children living with HIV/AIDS by sensitizing and mobilizing professionals from various agencies and health care providers; supporting the care givers and family members; providing one-on-one counseling for the children; initiating fund-raising projects and stimulating public discussion on issues facing children affected by HIV/AIDS.