|

The Orange Foundation, previously the France Telecom Foundation, leads an important programme of community involvement activities across the Group. The Foundation supports initiatives that build and develop people's ability to communicate.

The Orange Foundation's focus is concentrated in three areas:

• healthcare – helping autistic people and giving people with visual or hearing impairment greater independence and quality of life
• education – joining the battle against illiteracy and promoting education for girls in developing countries
• culture – encouraging group singing

Twenty years after it was founded, the Orange Foundation is continuing to expand its programme of community involvement initiatives. Between 300 and 400 agreements are signed each year, giving away approximately 5 million euros.

The Orange Foundation has been involved in several important projects, and contributed to major scientific discoveries, in particular to research into the genetic origins of autism undertaken by a team at the Institut Pasteur. It has also supported 5,000 adults with reading and writing difficulties through both national and local initiatives.

The Orange Foundation also brings together Group companies in support of UNICEF, our global charity partner. Our global partnership with UNICEF focuses on improving education for girls in developing countries. More than 120 million children in the world are deprived of the right to education, over half of whom are girls. In developing countries, girls usually have to overcome greater obstacles than boys to go to school and complete their education. We run programmes to improve educational opportunities for girls in Senegal, Mali, the Ivory Coast and Madagascar, in cooperation with our local companies there.