Vodafone : UK will match the first £100k donated to We Love Manchester fund

By Rob Mukherjee | Head of North West Regional Business

I've been fortunate to spend the last eleven years of my working life in Manchester. Having grown up on Merseyside, the North West is part of who I am; the North West is where I've always felt I belonged. As a teenager, when I first moved east along the M62 to Manchester to work as an engineering apprentice, it was the city's many great music venues that drew me - the Hacienda, Ritzy's, 42s. A shared love of music is part of what makes Manchester such a special place.

After the horrific attack at Manchester Arena last week the city is in mourning, but the people are standing strong. I'm proud that Vodafone UK is standing in solidarity with the people of Manchester by fundraising for the British Red Cross Society's We Love Manchester Emergency Fund. Over the next two weeks The Vodafone Foundation, a UK-registered charity, will match the first £100,000 in donations from our employees, friends and families, customers, suppliers and business partners.

How you can help us raise funds for Manchester

Here's how you can help us raise funds for Manchester's injured and bereaved:
• Text the JustTextGiving code, VWLM50, and the amount you'd like to donate (£1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10) to 70070, or
• To donate more than £10, visit this JustGiving page, click the 'Donate' button and follow the on-screen instructions.

Manchester is where my colleagues and I work and many of us live. It's difficult to put into words the horror and sorrow we feel at this attack on our city. About 1,000 of us are based at our Northern Hub in Wythenshawe, and each day our retail colleagues welcome customers to our city centre stores at the Arndale Centre and Market Street. Manchester is home to many of us at Vodafone UK, and we feel the trauma our community has suffered. To quote the poet Tony Walsh: 'This is the place in our hearts, in our homes, because this is the place that's a part of our bones.'

We want to do more to help, and with your support, we will.

About Vodafone UK

Vodafone is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies and provides a range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 49 more, and has fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 30 September 2016, Vodafone had 470 million mobile customers and 14 million fixed broadband customers. For more information, please visit: www.vodafone.com.

Vodafone UK partners with businesses of all sizes - from start-ups and small businesses to the largest corporates and the public sector. The company has worked with UK businesses for over 30 years, starting out as a mobile provider and becoming one of the UK's leading total communications partners. It provides a range of voice and data services, secure communications infrastructure, fixed and call centre capability, and unified communications, and was the first mobile phone operator to offer a truly converged service for fixed and mobile.

Vodafone is currently spending around £1 billion on its network and services across the UK following a similar amount spent last year. This includes £200 million on its network in London, the introduction of its 4G service to more than 928 cities and towns, as well as thousands of smaller communities whilst also making network improvements across its UK 3G network. Meanwhile, The Vodafone Rural Open Sure Signal programme is also aiming to bring 3G coverage for the first time to 100 remote communities across the UK.

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