­­­This year marks 10 years of keeping disadvantaged Australians connected through our Access for Everyone programs.

Over the last decade Telstra has provided benefits to the value of more than $2 billion in low income support to help millions of Australians stay connected to family and friends, government and health services and to job opportunities.

To help us provide this support to the people who need it most, we work with over 2000 community organisations and their outlets. Working with organisations like The Salvation Army, Anglicare, St Vincent de Paul, The Cancer Council and Melbourne City Mission, we provide bill assistance, phone cards and pensioner discounts to more than 1.2 million low income Australians each month.

There are many, many stories from our Access for Everyone program.  Every story I hear reminds me of the wide range of needs to be connected, and the importance it plays.  We recently captured one of those stories at the Salvation Army in Sydney which reminds us that the need to be connected is universal.  You can view this video below.

On this anniversary we are also launching a new program to provide $1 million worth of Pre-Paid mobile phone recharge cards, to help people stay connected. These are $20 cards that can be used by our customers in crisis to stay in touch.

We’re proud of what Access for Everyone has been able to achieve over the past decade in helping those in need and these numbers and stories are a testament to years of hard work, commitment and a determination by our own Telstra staff and our community partners to create better lives for those in need.  We also know there is more to be done and through our community investment programs we hope to connect those who need it most.