Singapore, October 31 2009 – Microsoft announced its pledge to contribute S$270,000 to The President’s Challenge making bringing its third year of fund raising to S$1.23 million to enable and equip people with disabilities with the necessary IT skills to realise their full potential. A total of 150 beneficiaries from the Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD) and children from Grace Orchard School were invited to enjoy a Rock ‘n Roll Concert and carnival at the Chinese Gardens where Microsoft staff formed rock bands to earn donations for The President’s Challenge. His Excellency President S R Nathan was Guest-of-Honour for the event.
Two years ago, Microsoft made a commitment to raise S$1 million to enable people with disabilities to use technology to find better jobs and become more active in their communities and society. Now into its third round of fund raising, today’s pledge brings the total contribution to S$1.2 million, exceeding its original goal.
Today, Microsoft also launched a new initiative to address IT training for seniors through a S$150,000 grant to RSVP, a non-profit organisation of senior volunteers whose mission is to provide opportunities for seniors to serve the community with their talents and experience. This is a three year commitment which will enable Microsoft and RSVP to provide software, computers, curriculum and specialized expertise to training seniors on a wide range of technology skills. The initiative kicked off with a donation of 37 refurbished laptops installed with Windows 7, the latest operating system released by the company and Microsoft Office 2007. Microsoft will also provide access to training curriculum to enable RSVP to run customize training programs to meet the needs seniors.
With the support of IDA, the grant will also enable RSVP to run a Silver Infocomm training centre, with two training rooms equipped with computers and the necessary software from Microsoft to learn basic skills from word processing to making their own movies.
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