Thursday, June 07, 2007 Toral: Corporate social responsibility for IT companies By Janette Toral Digital Filipino
THERE are a lot of information technology (IT) companies today that engage in various corporate social responsibility (CSR) advocacies and use these as means to share their wealth. Common activities include classroom building, technology donation or transfer, training sponsorship and competitions, among others.
Last week, I just found out that the Intellectual Property Ventures Group (IPVG), a publicly listed company on the Philippine Stock Exchange, has just created its CSR division, IP Foundation. Chaired by Marco Santos, the foundation supports two main advocacies: health services and IT education.
Under health services, Family Vaccine and Specialty Clinics (FVSC) carry out the CSR work in this area.
Last Thursday, FVSC, with IP Foundation, entered into an agreement with the Provincial Government of Bohol to build and operate three animal bite treatment clinics in support of Bohol’s participation in the World Health Organization’s rabies eradication program.
The Provincial Government of Bohol will partially shoulder the expense of injections, through government funds and donations from concerned groups.
During the signing, Gov. Erico Aumentado shared his personal commitment to make Bohol rabies-free by 2010 as he can’t bear the increasing number of incidents being brought by constituents to his attention.
With more than 200,000 dog population, Bohol has the highest dog bite incident in Central Visayas and the fifth nationwide. In the first quarter of this year, 364 dog bite incidents were reported and three of these resulted in death.
At a country level, Cagayan Valley has the highest incident of dog bites and rabies related illness followed by Tuguegarao, Tarlac and Iloilo. These areas have high number of dog pets at home while some also regard dogs as a food delicacy.
It is scary to know that those who get bitten by rabies-infected dogs can die within 10 days once symptoms start showing. They are often sedated once they reached that stage until they eventually die.
Those who manage to get the six anti-rabies injection shots are required to abstain from sharing utensils, kissing and having sexual contact with anyone as the disease can be transferred to another person.
There are now pre-exposure shots available so that those who get bitten by their pet dogs or stray dogs will just need another booster shot.
I’m thrilled to see that IT companies like IPVG, through its IP Foundation, are going beyond traditional CSR and look into areas where attention is also needed. Other IT companies should also do the same as there are also other important things, more than computers and classrooms that require attention in our country.
Bohol is known as an eco-tourist destination and preparing itself to become an IT outsourcing destination as well. Governor Aumentado is lobbying for the upgrade of the prov-ince’s power and telecommunications infrastructure.
He is also following up on President Arroyo’s P1.3-billion commitment to make this happen.
He admitted that until their infrastructure gets upgraded, they are unable to encourage ICT investments and can neither harness ICT and the Internet in improving their education, especially in remote areas.
