Umniah Contributes to Achieving 10 Global Sustainable Development Goals, with Community Empowerment and Education on Top

Naua Issues 2019 CSR Report for Umniah Umniah Contributes to Achieving 10 Global Sustainable Development Goals, with Community Empowerment and Education on Top Amman, Jordan, 20 February 2020: Naua platform, a Crown Prince Foundation initiative, has launched its annual social responsibility report for Umniah for the year 2019. This report is part of a strategic partnership agreement signed between Naua and Umniah in 2018, and included the general societal impact of Umniah programs that are consistent with the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which aim to eradicate poverty, protect the environment, and achieve a better and more sustainable future for all by 2030. Umniah’s CSR strategy – according to the 2019 report – was based on three main themes: education as a main pillars; education as a main pillar, empowering the community under the umbrella of Umniah Al Khair and youth and sports. Under the education pillar, Umniah continued its support for “Caravan Razan” during 2019, in cooperation with Umniah’s Ambassador for Education Razan Khilfeh. Umniah provided a support of 6,000 dinars, through which it held a number of activities such as the Summer Reading Camp for students in public libraries and the launch of a small library at the Caravan for female students in order to encourage them to read, in addition to holding a signing ceremony for Everest, a book by Jordanian mountaineer and climber Mostafa Salameh. As part of the training and empowerment of students, Umniah held a training course for students of the Promise Welfare Society at its business incubation, The Tank, by hosting 80 students from a number of schools to train them through a workshop entitled “Emotional Intelligence, Critical Thinking and Innovation”, sponsored by Her Highness Princess Alia Tabbaa. As part of its ongoing efforts to support the education sector and improve the health environment of school students, Umniah announced its adoption of a number of schools as part of the Healthy Schools program by the Royal Health Awareness Society in a number of Jordanian governorates, as it aims to develop a health-promoting environment in these schools by spreading health awareness among students, and encouraging them to adopt healthy behaviors and habits, which will positively reflect on their physical, social, and academic development. Under the community empowerment theme, Umniah contributed to achieving 10 of the UN’s sustainable development goals, especially those related to the eradication of poverty and hunger, where 54% of Umniah’s total support through the platform was dedicated to Tkiyet Um Ali’s projects. Moreover, Umniah’s Youth Unit participated in 14 volunteering activities with Tkiyet Um Ali and Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization’s Clothes Bank during the holy month of Ramadan. In 2019, Umniah supported three key programs by Tkiyet Um Ali: Wayfarer, Mawaed Al Rahman, and food parcels, by distributing 420 food parcels to 35 families over the period of one year, and several more food parcels to 865 families over a period of 5 days. The company helped provide 650 Iftar meals in three governorates and 1838 Iftar meals at Tkiyet Um Ali headquarters throughout the holy month of Ramadan. Furthermore, Umniah supported two projects by the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO) – on Mother’s Day, and at the end of the year as part of the Arzaq Women Empowerment project – where 15 women were offered training in the basics of sewing during the first stage, and advanced sewing course during the second stage. Support for these two projects stems from Umniah’s strong belief in the importance of empowering women and enhancing their economic role in the society, as well as providing them with the skills they need to secure sufficient income for themselves and their families. Under the umbrella of Umniah Al Khair, the company launched its Voluntary Program in cooperation with Umniah’s Youth Unit, believing in the importance of volunteering and its role in contributing to raising the society and building a spirit of citizenship and giving back, as more than 100 members of Umniah’s Youth Unit volunteered to implement 21 initiatives and projects, for a total of 1727 volunteering hours, contributing their time and efforts to serve their community. The company carried out a number of volunteering activities, including packaging and packing meals for the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO) during the month of Ramadan, filling food parcels for Tkiyet Um Ali, helping to sort clothes for the Clothes Bank, and participating in the nationwide clean-up campaign “Himmeh w Lammeh” in cooperation with the Jordan Inbound Tour Operators Association (JITOA) to clean Ajloun Forest. The report concluded that Umniah ranked third amongst all supporter categories. In the charitable work category, Umniah ranked first in the aid and health categories, and second in the empowerment category. Moreover, the company achieved an advanced position in the education category in terms of the quality of programs for empowering students with the skills they need for critical thinking and academic excellence. Umniah had previously contributed to the development and implementation of the Naua platform as one of its founding partners, which in turn helped Naua to positively affect more than 100,000 beneficiaries who were supported by the platform by implementing 65 charitable projects and improving the quality of life for various groups of the society. Moreover, and in line with the social responsibility strategy implemented by Umniah for several years and away from the projects that were supported through the Naua platform, Umniah maintained its own investments in a number of existing programs, including the implementation of the largest and widest project for electronic linking and protection for schools in the Kingdom. The company announced its implementation of the second phase of the project, by adding 800 schools and education directorates, and providing them with integrated communications services. In its first phase, the project targeted 2769 sites, 43 directorates, 69 administrative buildings, 1.3 million students, and 100,000 employees. The project also included the supply of safe and free internet services. The importance of this project lies in creating the necessary infrastructure to employ technology in the educational process and improve its efficiency, as well as support the efforts of the Ministry of Education in developing education and promoting the use of modern technologies in the educational system, in a manner that is compatible with the goals and outputs of the national strategy for the development of education which was adopted by the government and implemented by the Ministry. As part of its role in assuming its national and social responsibilities towards various segments of the society, providing assistance to the needy throughout the Kingdom, following Royal directives, and in response to His Majesty King Abdullah’s II call to support indebted Jordanian women, Umniah donated 10,000 dinars to the Zakat Fund. In addition to launching “The 8Log” blog in early 2019, with the aim to contribute to enriching Arabic content on the internet and provide young people with rich and reliable content by producing more than 280 articles on various topics of interest to the youth, Umniah also launched a special competition for its blog to encourage young people, especially university students to write. Hundreds of Jordanian university students participated in the competition, and the winners were announced and honored at a ceremony held on World Arabic Language Day. In support of entrepreneurship and innovation, Umniah’s incubator for business and entrepreneurship, The Tank, has provided value-added services to startups in Jordan, which reached 37 companies in 2019, through financial and technical support, training and awareness sessions, specialized conferences and seminars, legal advice, business development consultancy, mentorship programs, dedicated office spaces and connecting entrepreneurs to international investors, in addition to concluding multiple local and regional partnerships to empower startups and provide them with new windows of opportunity. Under the youth and sports theme, Umniah continued to support Jordanian taekwondo champion Ahmad Abu Ghaush and his coach Faris Al-Assaf, in addition to supporting the two most important clubs in the Kingdom, Al-Faisaly and Al-Wehdat. Umniah also supported five football and basketball championships for juniors held at De La Salle College, Bishop’s School for Boys, and Amman Baptist School. Over the past year, Umniah has allowed its customers through its umnicoin loyalty program to donate to many of the initiatives supported by the company, such as Al-Aman Fund, Himmetna initiative, Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization, King Hussein Cancer Center and Foundation, sports fund “Bader Bil Khair”, Royal Health Awareness Society, and Tkiyet Um Ali, where the total donations amounted to nearly 17,000 dinars. -End-