Ooredoo and Messi Team Up for Children’s Health
Ooredoo’s Partnership with Leo Messi Foundation Supports Mobile Health Clinics, with Target of Reaching Two Million Children by 2016
Doha, Qatar
Ooredoo and the Leo Messi Foundation announced today a trailblazing new initiative to support mobile health clinics around the world to provide medical aid for children in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.
At a special ceremony in Doha, Qatar, Ooredoo Chairman H.E. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani and football star Lionel “Leo” Messi announced the launch of the initiative, setting the target of reaching two million children by 2016 across Ooredoo’s markets.
Ooredoo supports a wide range of health services throughout its footprint, as part of its commitment to promoting human growth and giving back to the community. For example, Indosat, part of Ooredoo, has provided more than 600,000 people in Indonesia with free healthcare services through its mobile clinics programme launched in 2008.
Now, working in partnership with the Leo Messi Foundation, Ooredoo plans to roll out mobile clinics across its global footprint with a particular focus on children’s health, in addition to enhancing the range of services provided by the clinics in Indonesia.
Ooredoo is also set to expand its range of mHealth services – health-based advisory and monitoring services that can be accessed via a mobile phone. For instance, customers in Kuwait, Palestine and Iraq can already access diabetes-related mobile information and alerts. Ooredoo Qatar is trialling a 24/7 mobile health advice service, and Indosat in Indonesia is developing a similar service enabling access to doctors and health related information via text, voice and rich content.
H.E. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani, Chairman, Ooredoo, said: “We believe that young people should be given a full range of life chances, so that they have the opportunity to grow and reach their potential. Disease and lack of access to healthcare is a major barrier for young people in many parts of the developing world, and we see the mobile clinic initiative as a practical and impactful solution to this. Today’s initiative will enable us to work with the Leo Messi Foundation and transform our Indonesian mobile clinic initiative into a global force for better health.”
Among health-related projects, The Leo Messi Foundation, founded by Messi in 2007, has helped fight Chagas disease, rehabilitate hospitals, and offer scholarships for training doctors. Working with Ooredoo will enable the Foundation to extend its work into the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.
Lionel Messi said: “Ooredoo and I believe in making a difference in the community, and I’m proud that the Leo Messi Foundation will help Ooredoo provide much-needed healthcare and educational support for at-risk children around the world. This unique partnership with Ooredoo is another way that we can help youth make their dreams come true.”
In Indonesia, Indosat’s award-winning 16 mobile health clinics have been particularly effective in treating people who live in rural areas and have limited access to hospitals and doctors.
The Foundation will also help promote and develop the programme across additional regions in Indonesia, including distributing medicine to more young people. People will be able to recognise the partnership, as there will be branded logos of the Leo Messi Foundation and Lionel Messi himself on the mobile health clinics and doctors’ medical kits.
Alexander Rusli, President Director and CEO, Indosat, said: “Indosat’s mobile health clinics have been a major success in Indonesia, having treated hundreds of thousands at-risk people, mostly children and women. With support from the Leo Messi Foundation, we’ll be able to expand our mission to help more people living in Indonesia, and provide support for healthcare initiatives such as vaccination programmes.”
Future markets targeted by the mobile health clinic initiative include Algeria, Tunisia and additional countries across the Ooredoo footprint.
Ooredoo’s footprint also includes also countries like Qatar that have a highly-developed healthcare infrastructure. In these countries, the mobile health clinics can be used to promote healthy lifestyles among underserved communities, youth and women.
Waleed Al Sayed, COO, Ooredoo Qatar, said: “Ooredoo has a long track record of supporting healthy lifestyles in Qatar. Bringing Ooredoo’s regional and global initiative of mobile health clinics to Qatar, in partnership with the Leo Messi Foundation, demonstrates our commitment to promoting human growth and will enhance the healthcare for many people.”
While in Doha, Lionel Messi hosted a special football training session and a tea party for young people, and made dreams come true by meeting inspiring youth from countries in Ooredoo’s footprint.
Ooredoo will continue to develop initiatives to help underserved communities, empower women, enable youth with life opportunities, and catalyse entrepreneurs and small businesses.
About Ooredoo
Ooredoo, formerly known as Qtel Group, is a leading international communications company delivering mobile, fixed, broadband internet and corporate managed services tailored to the needs of consumers and businesses across markets in the Middle East, North Africa and South-East Asia. As a community-focused company, Ooredoo is guided by its vision of enriching people’s lives and its belief that it can stimulate human growth by leveraging communications to help people achieve their full potential. Ooredoo has a presence in markets such as Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Palestine, the Maldives and Indonesia. The company reported revenues of $9.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2012 and had a consolidated global customer base of more than 92.9 million people as of 31 December 2012. Ooredoo’s shares are listed on the Qatar Exchange and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.
About Leo Messi Foundation
The Leo Messi Foundation stems from an initiative launched by Leo Messi with the support of his family and striving to ensure that children around the world enjoy equal opportunities to make their dreams come true.
Since 2007, it has been working tirelessly to accomplish its mission on behalf of children and adolescents whose health is at risk. Whether on a national or international level, the projects conducted by the Foundation all focus on education and health, particularly the battle against childhood cancer and Chagas disease.
“I reached my dream of becoming a footballer and I want you to know that I fought hard to get here and that I have to fight even harder to keep it up. Today, I want to use my own efforts and my own success to help the neediest children, because it daily moves me to see a child smile, when he thinks there is hope or when I see that he feels happy. That is why we decided to create the Leo Messi Foundation and I will keep fighting to make children happy with the same enthusiasm and dedication that drive me in pursuing my football career.”
