World of Difference Winners Announced

Three Australians have been granted a year of ‘paid charity leave’ to focus on their passion projects as part of the Vodafone Foundation’s 2014’s World of Difference program.

The recipients have been given the chance to leave their day jobs and devote the year ahead to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians by working for their favourite foundation.

Annabelle Sims, Tanya Hanaee and Edward Morgan will start working for the Fred Hollows Foundation, McGrath Foundation and Smiling Mind.

The World of Difference program has funded the three recipients to take 12 months of Paid Charity Leave and dedicate their full-time efforts towards personal passion projects. They will each receive a salary from their chosen charity of $70,000 as well as $15,000 to cover any expenses associated with doing their good deeds.

Alyssa Jones, Head of Vodafone Foundation, said: “As the years go on, it’s incredibly rewarding to see such overwhelming interest in the World of Difference program, and we are thrilled to once again offer the opportunity for participants to make a big difference and to do good.

“With the Vodafone Foundation we are committed to use the power of technology to help improve the health and wellbeing of Aussies.”

Making a World of Difference in 2014 recipients:

• Annabelle Sims from Sydney will join the Fred Hollows Foundation in their quest to treat and prevent avoidable blindness, particularly for Indigenous Australians living in remote parts of the country. Having grown up as close friends of the Fred Hollows family, Annabelle was inspired by the work of Foundation at an early age, and a visit to a Fred Hollows clinic in Nepal inspired her even more. Her goal is to secure funding and partners for a revolutionary eye health technology project which will improve testing for diabetic blindness;
• Tanya Hanaee from Sydney will work with the McGrath Foundation’s educational program, Curve Lurve, to teach young women about their health and wellbeing, breast awareness and breast checks. The program, which includes a Smartphone app, aims to teach women health habits for a lifetime, and ultimately help reduce the impact of breast cancer. A teacher herself, Tanya will reach out to high schools to get them using the Curve Lurve program;
• Edward Morgan from Melbourne has aligned with Smiling Mind, a charity that helps young people manage stress and improve wellbeing with free web based and Smartphone app tools developed by psychologists. Ed took part in a Smiling Mind corporate program in his role with IBM, and was inspired to help other Aussies overcome mental barriers. An IT professional, Morgan will spend his year developing and launching a Smiling Mind app for Android, to complement the existing iOS version.

The total number of Australians who have received more than $3 million in funding through the World of Difference program is now to 45.