Employee volunteers provide individual support

In April 2004, NTT Communications launched a drive to recruit “members to promote social contributions” throughout the Company. With these assembled individuals, we created the Social Contribution Working Group.

In recruiting the members to promote social contributions, our basic approach was that members participated in meetings and other activities strictly on a volunteer basis, doing regular work without undue burden. Participants take part in an open, fun, and relaxed atmosphere, without regard to titles or organizational hierarchies.

The Social Contribution Working Group has planned and executed many exciting projects since its inception. In one project aimed at elementary-school students, the Working Group organized the first “easy Internet class,” in which parents and children worked together to create a greeting card online. The second of these easy Internet classes was offered to Minato Ward Girl Scouts in elementary and middle school, teaching them how to write and publish their own blogs. With the Working Group members’ guidance, the schoolchildren and their parents gained fun and valuable hands-on experience in the online world. In the questionnaire handed out after the class, the response was overwhelmingly positive. The Social Contribution Working Group plans to continue creating these programs with their own hands in order to contribute to the communities in which its members live and work.

Twice a year, NTT America raises a fund through in-house sales of goods carrying the NTT Communications logo. Proceeds from the sale and the company’s matching gift go to the United Way, a global non-profit organization to collect contributions from local communities and distributes them according to local priorities. This “matching gift” arrangement is a commonly used approach in the United States to encourage employees to support charitable causes empowering them with the knowledge that they are playing an active part in driving the donation process forward. In addition to the charity sale program just described, NTT America also provides a matching gift to philanthropic contributions at an employee’s discretion yearround.

An NTT America employee wearing a shirt featuring the shining-arc logo.

The tsunami triggered by an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra on December 26, 2004 struck numerous countries around the rim of the Indian Ocean. In Sri Lanka, one of the hardest-hit countries, NTT Communications dispatched personnel to Sri Lanka Telecom, a company in which it owns a stake, to provide funding and material support as follows:

•  Donation of US$100,000 to the Sri Lankan government •  Donation of emergency aid materials (hygienic materials such as bandages and adhesive plaster) to Sri Lanka Telecom •  Transport and donation to Sri Lanka Telecom of six communications repair vehicles

The tsunami demolished much of Sri Lanka's east coast.

NTT Communications donated emergency supplies to Sri Lanka Telecom.

Demands for more information on the operations of NPOs in each region are mounting on a daily basis. In every community, more and more people want to know more about NPOs working to provide social services and improve life in their community. Others want to know how to contact NPOs that support the arts in specific regions. Still others may wish to compare NPO’s performance with that of other NPOs in the same field when contacted by an environmental NPO soliciting donations.

To provide a forum for dialogue between the community, NPOs, and private enterprises, in April 2001 the Japan NPO Center* established NPO Hiroba. NPO Hiroba is a website that incorporates a searchable database listing all of the nationally accredited NPOs in Japan.

NTT Communications launched NPO Hiroba and provides ongoing operational backup for the site using SecureSmartAccess, the Company’s exclusive online service. With NPO Hiroba, information about the activities and current status of NPOs and other community organizations is now at everyone’s fingertips. This unique resource enables any interested citizen or enterprise to learn about and take part in NPO activities, contributing to the development and growth of NPO activities across Japan.

•  Total organizations registered on NPO Hiroba (as of November 2005): Total accredited NPOs in Japan (as of June 30, 2005): 22,434 (Total accredited NPOs in Japan at the time of establishment of NPO Hiroba: 3,150) *The Japan NPO Center is itself a specified nonprofit corporation. The Center was established to provide a strong base for the activities of NPOs that transcends divisions of category and region, supporting these organizations' efforts to build a better citizen society for all, and to establish a partnership between government and regional organizations.

NTT Communications has unveiled a program to donate used PCs to regional agencies and NPOs. Several objectives comprise this initiative, including protecting the environment, promoting recycling, and contributing to the development of regional communities.

In October 2003, the Company donated 793 of its used PCs to joint workshops for the disabled across Japan through eelder, an NPO. The work of refurbishing the PCs was entrusted to organizations such as Yume Group Workshop, a public social services corporation that operates workshops employing the disabled. The talented people at these workshops restore the PCs to like-new condition and restore the data on the hard disks to like when they were new, recycling valuable resources and creating employment opportunities for the disabled.

Jolly’s Magazine is a website dedicated to everything about guide dogs. The site also raises funds online to support the activities of the Japan Guide Dog Society, which conducts a range of activities aimed at enabling the blind and visually impaired to participate fully in their communities. Visitors to the site can select the amount they wish to donate, ranging from ¥100 to ¥1,000, and submit payment using the OCN Pay On* electronic payment service. To encourage giving the site offers all donors receive selected OCN original content free of charge. As of November 2005, donations to the Japan Guide Dog Society have topped ¥2 million, for which the Society and NTT Communications are sincerely grateful.