du Slashes Mobile and Fixed Call Rates to Palestine by 50 Per Cent
du Launches Fund-raising Campaigns by its Employees and Customers in Aid of Gaza
In a move to help Palestinians in Gaza, du, the UAE's integrated telecom service provider, today launched two-fold fund-raising campaigns involving an SMS based campaign for customers and an internal campaign for du employees. At the end of the campaigns, du will forward the proceeds from the campaigns through UAE Red Crescent to Gaza. Beginning 4 January 2009, du customers can contribute to the campaign by sending an SMS ‘Gaza' to a du short code ‘1000'. Each SMS will cost the du customer 10 Dirhams and du customers have the option of sending as many SMSs as they prefer to. The proceeds of this campaign will be donated on behalf of the customers. du also announced an internal campaign for du employees to donate money which will also be forwarded to UAE Red Crescent. Announcing the campaign, Osman Sultan, CEO, du, said: "We hope these two campaigns will help the Palestinians face the situation and appreciate the efforts of UAE Red Crescent in these initiatives." Ahmed Yusuf Ahmed Ghaith Al Suwaidi, General Secretary of the UAE Red Crescent said: "We welcome this swift humanitarian gesture from a UAE national company such as du to help out the Palestinians in Gaza and we believe it is with collective effort that we can make a difference to their lives." The two fund-raising campaigns follow du's announcement to offer 50 per cent reduction in rates for all calls across mobile, fixed and carrier select customers to Palestine originating from the UAE beginning 30 December 2008.