Recent charitable and community-focused programs

MTS provides mobile communication for “Give a life” charity

MTS continues to provide free mobile connection for the employees of the charity «Give a life» in 2009. The charity «Give a life» helps raise money to treat children who are suffering from cancer and other serious illnesses. The charity’s employees organize various campaigns and fundraising programs to pay for expensive equipment and medicines to save children’s lives. The founders of the charity are the actresses, Chulpan Khamatova and Dina Korzun. MTS has provided mobile connections for all the charity’s employees since February 2008.

 

MTS opens a second virtual branch of the Russian Museum in Tver region

On the 9th of February, Tver saw the opening of the centre for information and education ‘The Russian Museum: a virtual branch’, supported by MTS. It draws on the expertise and resources of the History Faculty of the Tver State University.
‘The Russian Museum: a virtual branch’ is a long-term program to create an integrated network of advanced technological multimedia centers. These are based on scientific, educational and systematic developments of leading specialists of the State Russian Museum in Russian cities. The project has been undertaken in order to popularize Russian fine art and give people who live in Russian cities outside of Moscow the chance to see the collection of the State Russian Museum.   
Today, with the support of MTS, 43 of these centers for information and education ‘The Russian Museum: a virtual branch’ have been opened: 37 centers in Russian cities and 6 abroad.

 

MTS provided mobile communications for the crew of the ship «The Intrepid»

On 8th February, MTS made it possible for the crew of one of the most famous patrol ships of the Baltic Fleet, ‘The Intrepid’, to call home. The ship returned to Baltisk (in Kaliningrad) after a 7-month operation to protect civilian ships from pirates along the African coasts. On the day they returned to port, each of the 120 crew members, many of whom had joined the ranks of ‘The Intrepid’ from remote parts of the country, could call friends and family for free. MTS provided handsets with MTS SIM cards on board ‘The Intrepid’. More than 160 calls were made, including to Moscow and Moscow region, to Astrakhan, Volgograd, Murmansk and Krasnodar region. A total of 680 minutes of talk time was used.
Similar programs were run by MTS last year in Kaliningrad and Saint Petersburg on the 23rd February and on Victory Day.

 

MTS facilitated the charity phone-in marathon «A Christmas present» in Novogorod region

MTS facilitated the traditional charity phone-in marathon «A Christmas present» which took place in Novgorod region on the 31st January 2009. This year, under the aegis of the Novgorod region Administration, a fundraising campaign was announced to raise money for families with children who are suffering from chronic illnesses. Novgorod region’s MTS subscribers could send a 10 ruble contribution by sending an SMS with the message “Good” to 99111. More than 4000 SMS’s were received which raised 40,000 rubles.   All funds raised through the campaign will be given to Novgorod families who have sick children and are in need of financial help.

 

MTS communications help Russian doctors to treat injured children in Gaza

The Company provided mobile communications for doctors of the Institute of Urgent Child Surgery and Head injury. One of their famous surgeons, Leonid Roshal, will be in Gaza for the last 10 days of January, performing operations on children who have been injured during the recent military actions.
Russian doctors are highly qualified and have a lot of experience of working in extreme situations. In Gaza, they work on particularly complicated child injuries. Mobile communication is essential for doctors so that they can get in touch quickly and consult urgently with their Russian colleagues. The surgeons will be working in the war zone until the end of January.
It’s not the first time that MTS is helping The Roshal Centre doctors to carry out their work in hot spots and extreme poverty zones. Previously our Company provided mobile connections for a team of surgeons who were performing operations in mobile hospitals on patients who were injured in the Tsunami in Indonesia.

 

MTS is the official partner of the international tournament “The Ivan Yarigin Grand Prix” for freestyle and women’s wrestling in Krasnoyarsk

MTS became the official mobile phone operator of the 20th international tournament, “The Ivan Yarigin Grand Prix” for freestyle wrestling and the 8th international tournament “The Ivan Yarigin Grand Prix” for women’s wrestling.
These tournaments are the most important sporting events in the Krasnodar region. The men’s freestyle wrestling has been an annual tournament for 20 years and welcomes several hundreds of athletes from all over Russia and abroad. In 2009, both tournaments were the first, large, international, wrestling competitions in the Olympic cycle.
MTS regularly supports sporting events on both regional and federal levels. Thus, last year, MTS became a sponsor of the Russian Olympic Committee. In addition, in Krasnoyarsk, a charity auction was held, selling ‘Infinity’ class numbers. All the money raised in the auction, a total of a quarter of a million rubles, was given to the region’s Olympic preparatory school for young gymnastic athletes.
MTS is the official partner of the competition «Student of The Year: 2008» in Vologda region.

 

MTS is the official partner of the competition «Student of The Year: 2008» in Vologda region

In Vologda region, MTS became the official partner of the regional competition «Student of The Year: 2008». The final was held on the 23rd of January in Vologda when the participants in the competition showed their projects to the jury. The projects consisted of proposals on how to run a socially significant student event, dedicated to the Year of Youth.
The competition was held by Vologda region’s Department of Education, Committee for Youth Activities and the Election Committee. The most important aims were to create conditions for the student youth to realize their potential and to reinforce the image of students as the most active youth group. The evaluation criteria included: the student’s contribution to the social, scientific and sporting life of the institute as well as general achievements in other areas.  
MTS donated prizes for the competition winners, including the main prize which was a trip to Egypt.  The ‘Student of The Year: 2008’ competition was won by Dmitry Krivosheev, a 5th year student of the Faculty of Geography at the Vologda State Pedagogical University.

 

MTS organized the holiday celebration «Christmas with MTS» for residents of Novosibirsk

On the 7th of January, on the riverbank of Novosibirsk, MTS organized the traditional holiday «Christmas with MTS». Over the course of the day ‘Seven wonders of MTS’, the holiday entertainment program, took place in the ice city on the riverbank. Visitors were able to take part in fun competitions dedicated to mobile communication, and visit Santa Claus’ grotto. More than 100,000 people from Novosibirsk participated in the event. More than 8,000 people received prizes, presents and memorabilia from MTS. «Christmas with MTS» has been held for the last 8 years in a row and welcomes a large number of visitors each year.