Skip to content

Ding Blog blog

  • Press
  • Contact
  • Press
  • Contact

Jun 03, 2020

Finding the light, in these unprecedented times

Last week, Muslims around the world celebrated Eid to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. While the usual customs of prayers in the mosque and family feasts were absent this year, one essential custom remained – giving to charity or those less fortunate.

In this spirit of giving, Ding has also looked for ways to help those currently suffering during this global pandemic through our Access for Good initiative which aims to change billions of lives around the world. Under the initiative Ding donates one cent from every online top-up completed allowing us to give back to our customers communities.

This quarter we wanted to shine a light one two very worthy initiatives, which are tackling the ongoing fallout of the global pandemic – Careem Captains in the Middle East, and Kako’s Kids in Haiti.

Careem – supporting their Captains

Careem, the Middle East’s hugely successful ride-hailing company, like businesses all over the world has undoubtedly been impacted by the pandemic and the resulting lockdowns. Careem’s frontline workers, the drivers, who are known as ‘Captains’ have suffered the most. Captains are the heart of Careem, and the company values their service to customers and communities very highly – particularly in these unprecedented times. Early on in this crisis, Careem decided to act and show their Captains just how important they are to them.

“Even after lockdowns, things are not back to normal. People are not taking rides and earnings for our captains have taken a huge dip, so very quickly we wanted to see what we could do for our captains,” says Phani Jawahar Gutta, senior partnerships manager at Careem.

The company set up the Careem Captains fund, which has so far garnered more than Dh100,000 from customers and partners alike. The funding will be deployed to captains from June onwards to pay for their basic necessities including daily meals and care packages.

“If your earnings are reduced significantly, how will you survive and meet your monthly expenses? We are supporting them to cover the most basic expenses,” says Phani.

An overwhelming majority of the captains come from Pakistan and tend to be the main breadwinners for their families back home.

“It’s critical for them to send money back because all of their family is back home and even Dh500 is a lot in Pakistani Rupees,” says Phani.

Commenting on Careem’s initiative Muhannad Hassan, Ding’s General Manager for Asia and the Middle East said: ‘Captains sit at the heart of Careem’s business and supporting them at this time highlights how important they are to the company – it is a great initiative to allow these people to continue to support their families back home.’

He added: “We are seeing many of our partners around the world doing what they can to support their communities at this time and as a company we are keen to help where we can.”

Kako – putting Kids first

Like Careem, Kako’s Kids is trying to help their community where they can through this pandemic.

Founded in 2009 in Haiti, comedian Jacques Bourjolly, Jr., who is also as known as Kako, established a foundation to help children build a better future through sports and educational activities.

“The priority is education, and I use sports as a way to keep the kids’ attention and promote among them an awareness of the benefits of a good education,” says Kako.

To date, he has renovated and established eight sporting facilities with the goal of establishing 23 in total.

“It’s a good way of catching the kids early in order to help to steer them to become good citizens. We try to get them off the streets and give them a role model to look up to,” he says. “Often they are in close proximity to violence, but once they’re on a fielding playing, they have a coach, they are part of team, and they learn to listen to the other side.”

Since the pandemic however, these activities have been replaced with attempts to educate the children of Haiti on how to stay safe. In a country where access to running, potable water is limited, Kako has created handwashing stations in the neighbourhoods that need it the most.

“With our infrastructure, the way the country is set-up, we’re not ready or equiped for Covid-19,” he says. “We’re trying to get the word out to the kids to be aware of the situation and to take the necessary precautions and actions to keep them safe and well.”

Kako ensures there is enough water in the drums and soap and appoints a leader in the community to take care of the supply and demonstrate how to wash their hands properly. With donations to the foundation from companies, Kako’s Kids hopes to begin distributing masks to the most vulnerable, particularly mothers.

Avatar

by Andrew Tonna

share Share on Facebook Tweet Share on LinkedIn
Follow

In September 2018, Ding’s users sent their 300 millionth top-up

Ding has been making connections possible since its launch in 2006

76% of the world’s phones (or 5 billion and growing) are of the prepaid variety

Ding has a network of over 500+ operators, across 140+ countries

Our platform is available in 600,000 retail locations around the world

We have 200+ employees, coming from 28 countries around the world

Today we have nine offices – Dublin, Barcelona, Bucharest, Dhaka, Dubai, New Jersey, Miami, Paris and London

Ding delivers a top-up every second, in 3 seconds – connecting loved ones around the world

Did you know?

Most Popular

Mar 31, 2020

Digicel – rising to the challenge

Read More

Apr 03, 2020

Migrants workers – the silent victims of this crisis

Read More

You might also like

From big plans…to the final frontier – this quarter Ding talks to enigmatic Pay-O-Matic CEO – Jay Guskind

May 01, 2018

Read More

Communication – it sets us apart; and brings us together

May 01, 2018

Read More

Ding New Jersey springs to life

May 01, 2018

Read More

A date for the diary….come and meet us!

May 01, 2018

Read More

Ding unveils future-proofed app as top-up demand soars

Jun 01, 2018

Read More

From a coffee in Dubai to 300million top-ups – this quarter we talk to Ding’s founder and CEO, Mark Roden

Nov 28, 2018

Read More

Popular Articles

UAE Exchange – meeting the digital age head on

Dec 18, 2018

Phones, payments and pandemic trends: Exploring the impact of Covid-19

Jan 27, 2021

Transforming customer services with live chat

Dec 18, 2018

Mobilising the next one billion

Dec 18, 2018

Connecting the data

Dec 18, 2018

    Join the Conversation on our social media channels

    Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Linkedin Follow us on Facebook

    My Account

    • Overview
    • Purchase History
    • My Contacts

    Services

    • Mobile Top-up
    • Nauta Top-up
    • Mobile apps

    Quick Links

    • Support
    • Promotions
    • Countries
    • Blog

    Company

    • About Ding
    • Press
    • Careers
    • DingConnect – Become a B2B partner

    A little goes a long way

    ©2023 Ding Blog Web Design and Development by StudioForty9.

    Modal title

    Modal body text goes here.

    Go back to the top of this page