Qtel Group yesterday announced a donation of $200,000 to help flood victims in Indonesia, as part of the relief efforts by Qtel Group and its Indonesian operator Indosat. After several days of heavy flooding in Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta earlier last week, more than 20,000 people were evacuated and the Jakarta government declared a state of emergency until 27 January, 2013. Qtel Group’s donation to people in Jakarta was presented at the direction of Qtel Group chairman Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani. The donation goes to a number of agencies providing relief efforts, including the Jakarta Government, Red Cross Indonesia, PKPU, and the Dompet Dhuafa Foundation. This will help improve the lives of hundreds of flood victims, who are in dire need of food, water, clothing, medicine and additional daily needs. Qtel Group representative Nicholas Swierzy and Indosat president, director and CEO Alexander Rusli presented the donation to flood victims in the Kapuk Muara neighbourhood in North Jakarta. In the sprawling Jakarta metropolis, Kapuk Muara is one of the worst-affected areas, as nearly 700 people have been staying in a shelter for the past week. During the flooding, Indosat was the country’s first mobile operator to offer customers free local minutes, SMS and Internet access to help family members stay in touch. For customers with a minimum or zero balance, Indosat gave them Rp 5,000 to use for any combination of 10 minutes of voice calls, 20 SMS or 1 MB of data. BlackBerry customers also received one free day of service, thanks to an Indosat partnership with RIM. This was especially helpful for customers on daily packs who had exhausted their credit and could not recharge due to lack of access to shops. Indosat also offered free, unlimited calls to Jakarta’s emergency, evacuation and flood response call centres to all customers – even those without credit. The company has also worked around-the-clock to ensure its mobile network has remained operational, despite power outages and affected offices. Staff and their families stuck in their homes and businesses can call a special Indosat hotline to help them reach safety. In addition, Indosat has delivered water, food and clothing to call centre staff and employees who have remained in their offices during the flooding. Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud al-Thani said: “During this challenging time for Indonesians, I hope that our donation will help improve the lives of people suffering from the floods, and demonstrate the strong bond of friendship that exists between our countries. Indosat is working very hard to maintain services and ensure that people have the security and support of a reliable mobile connection. Whenever there are difficulties, our customers know they can rely on Qtel Group companies.” Qtel Groups holds a 65% stake in Indosat, which is the country’s second-largest mobile operator with more than 50mn customers on its nationwide network. In 2011, Qtel Group aided Indonesian victims of the volcanic eruption of Mount Merapi, which forced the evacuation of 350,000 people. Afterwards, Qtel Group provided QR 3mn to fund the complete construction of a residential complex with 56 houses, a water well and a mosque in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Gulf Times

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