Sarnrak Good Kids Great Hearts Program by AIS Won World-Prestigious WSIS Prizes Champion 2018 Award from UN and ITU
AIS celebrates another great pride by Thai people as it is the only company from Thailand to receive prestigious WSIS Prizes 2018 award from United Nations (UN) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The WSIS Prizes 2018 was awarded to Sarnrak Good Kids Great Hearts Program by AIS as it earned popular votes from over one million WSIS members around the world. WSIS judges unanimously chose AIS to win the WSIS Prizes Champion 2018 award under Category 16 for applying ICT and digital media creatively, equally and beneficially to society.
Mr. Somchai Lertsutiwong, Chief Executive Officer at Advanced Info Service Public Limited Company or AIS, shared his feeling on this occasion. “I am truly honored and very proud. This award reflects the power of Thai people who contributed their effort and time to the betterment of Thai society. The award also serves as a reward for AIS employees dedicated to improving the quality of living of underprivileged children and families across the country for the past
18 years. The WSIS Prizes 2018 aims to recognize outstanding projects that apply and promote the use of ICT and set a good example for global collaboration. This award is in line with AIS mission to bring digital technology
to improve the quality of people, communities and economy of Thailand, and to support the national policy of sustainable development.”
The WSIS Prizes 2018 bears its significance at the United Nations announced “the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs totaled 17 issues on September 25, 2015. Both the 2030 agenda and SDGs apply to national development of every country including Thailand.
This year, the WSIS Prizes drew large attention from countries around the world. As many as 685 projects were submitted and classified into 18 categories.
A popular-vote system was used for first screening with over one million WSIS members participating in the vote, leaving 492 projects to enter the final round. The judges then reviewed the existing projects and selected the best five for each category. At the end, the judges announced that Sarnrak Good Kids Great Hearts program from AIS won the WSIS Prizes Champion 2018 under Category 16 for applying ICT and digital media creatively, equally and beneficially to society.
AIS is the only company from Thailand to receive this award from world-renown organization United Nations (UN) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Mr. Somchai explained further “the fact that Sarnrak Good Kids Great Hearts Program from AIS won the WSIS Prizes Champion 2018 stems from AIS relentless pursuit to assist underprivileged children for more than 18 years.
The media and Thai public are aware of AIS-GKGH program and praise it for providing great impacts to Thai youths. It began in September 2016 when AIS switched from analog broadcast to ICT and digital media enabling more efficient distribution of real life stories of Good Kids Great Hearts children to the public. The penetration rate and viewership have increased significantly as a result of “view-and-share” through social media. Assistance from government agencies, private companies and general people has poured in to help poor children including necessities, house repair and cash donation which has become twice higher compared to aerial broadcast in the past. Some of GKGH children received more than 500,000 baht (approx.16,000 US dollars) in cash donation. This AIS-CSR program clearly meets the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations particularly in the issue of No Poverty, Equality Education, Decent Work and Economic Growth and Reduced Inequalities.
Sarnrak Good Kids Great Hearts is one of AIS’s CSR programs which was launched in 2001. A large number of families in Thailand lived in poverty causing children to miss school education. Saddened by this social problem, AIS introduced a CSR program to assist poor families by providing scholarship to their children, empowering them to continue school education until completing a Bachelor’s Degree program, find a decent job and support their families financially. Moreover, AIS constantly provides learning-enhancement and life-skill programs for scholarship recipients, and seek permission from children’s parents to broadcast their children’s real life stories nationwide available via
AIS Play mobile application, AIS Playbox for fixed broadband, YouTube and Facebook at 3:00 pm every Thursday.
