Verizon Wireless announced that it has collected more than 1.1 million mobile phones through its HopeLine program in 2010 and awarded more than $2.1 million grants to nearly 450 domestic violence prevention and awareness programs. Moreover, the operator provided 25,392 phones with a total of 75 million free minutes of service to shelters and agencies nationwide for use by clients.
If you’ve been living under a rock, you should know that HopeLine from Verizon works by collecting no-longer-used mobile phones, batteries and accessories in any condition from any mobile operator. These phones along with airtime are then donated to victims of domestic violence, while cash grants go to local shelters and NGOs that focus on domestic violence prevention, awareness and advocacy. Phones that cannot be refurbished are recycled in an environmentally sound way.
Since 2001, HopeLine has collected more than 8 million phones, awarded more than $10 million in cash grants to prevention and awareness programs nationwide and donated more than 106,000 HopeLine phones with 319 million minutes of airtime to victims, survivors and domestic violence organizations.