VISHANNA PHAGOO

The Digicel Foundation – a non-profit company independent of the Digicel Group – was launched back in 2012 to offer support and resources to charities and communities in need. But without the corporate social responsibilities (CSR) programme run by Penny Gomez, it would not have taken off like it did. At the time, Gomez was the communications manager of Digicel and remembers being motivated by the chairman at the time, Dennis O'Brien.

"I remember presenting to the board with the chairman Dennis O'Brien and he had asked me at that meeting, 'If you're doing so many things in corporate social responsibility, do you not want to take it a step further, and set up a foundation? That way, we really could bolster all the efforts together and make an even more meaningful impact.'"

She said after the meeting she was sent back to Trinidad from the US and had set up a meeting with the global heads of Digicel at the time – Papua New Guinea, Haiti and Jamaica. That is how she met the person responsible for the global heads, Maria Mulcahy who explained that the foundation is a "very serious thing" and shouldn't be taken lightly.

"I think that I didn't even realise how big of a deal it was, I think, perhaps then I knew that we wanted to make a difference, I knew that we were doing a lot of good work in the charity space. But once we took it on wholeheartedly, we recognised that this could be a game changer in TT when it comes to work, in what we call the 'development space'," said Gomez.

She added that she even went to Jamaica during the establishing years and started the foundation's flagship project – extraordinary projects impacting communities (Epic). After tying loose ends within the planning stages, Gomez said a board was established and explained how the foundation is separate from Digicel.

"It's deliberately set up like that because we don't want it to be affected by the commercial offerings and what the commercial parts of the business is doing. This is a standalone that really just works on behalf of the people of TT, the disadvantaged, the systemic issues and really having a firm grip in that space and making a difference there. So it's totally meant to be altruistic and to be giving back, helping to grow communities where we operate. So it's a separate company, run by a board with a chairperson."

The chairman is Desha Clifford who is also director of Digicel's legal team. Gomez said there are 11 board members and the foundation has raised US$6.5 million in the ten years it has been around.

"It's a lot of money and we've done so with a small team that can be scaled up at times or scaled down depending on what the situation is. But apart from that, we have a very massive volunteer base because it's all of Digicel we employ when we want volunteers to get the jobs done. They too have embraced the foundation."

[caption id="attachment_970369" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Students learn the basics of computer coding and programing on a chart using a mouse, while Chief Secretary Farley Au