January 25, 2001 | Read Time: 2 minutes
By NICOLE WALLACE
The wireless-telephone industry is deploying its products in the fight against domestic violence — and asking the public to pitch in, too.
Since 1996, the Call to Protect program has put 21,000 mobile phones in the hands of victims of domestic violence.
The program is sponsored by Motorola, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the Wireless Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. Wireless service providers that are members of the association provide free airtime.
Originally, Motorola provided all of the phones, contributing a total of 17,000. But changes in wireless communications led the Wireless Foundation to wonder if there might be a better way to get phones for the program. In some areas, for example, new all-digital systems were rendering older analog phones obsolete, and surveys suggested that mobile phone users responded to changes in the technology by replacing their phones approximately every two years.
So, in September 1999, the Wireless Foundation began to ask consumers to send in their old phones for use in the Call to Protect program. To date, more than 160,000 phones have been donated. A wide variety of groups — including Junior Leagues, scout troops, and offices — have held phone drives to benefit the program.
In fact, the response was so overwhelming that the foundation had to pause and evaluate how it would deal with the flood of donated phones. Now that the foundation has worked out what it believes will be an efficient process, it plans to resume its distribution of phones at an increased rate, with 1,500 phones scheduled to go out the door this month.
Newer phones that are in good condition are distributed to victims of domestic violence by shelters and police departments. Older or damaged phones are refurbished and sold. A portion of the proceeds goes to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, while the rest of the money is used to buy new phones for the program.
David S. Diggs, executive director of the Wireless Foundation, says that the phones are making a difference in victims’ lives, and that in many cases a phone’s most important use is as a deterrent to violence. “Often a violent partner will be cunning enough to knock out communications — you hear stories about phones getting ripped off the wall,” he explains. “Well, this is a phone that stays in the woman’s hand, and we’ve heard anecdotes about women holding up the phone and saying, ‘Don’t try it. I have a phone. I have a way to get help.’”
For more information: Go to http://www.donateaphone.com.
