Yandex Expands its “Helping Hand” Initiative

Internet, October 6, 2020 – Yandex, a technology company that builds intelligent products and services powered by machine learning, announces that it will make the Helping Hand initiative, which Yandex launched at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a permanent fixture of its ESG initiative, with a focus on providing support for charitable foundations and non-profit organizations. 

The program currently includes partnership opportunities for charities and non-profit organizations to provide free taxi rides to people with disabilities and their caretakers, as well as offering free Yandex technologies, products and services to non-profit organizations that help people in need. 

“In partnering with charitable foundations during these difficult times, we have really come to appreciate the incredible contribution that they make,” says Olga Nikitushkina, head of the Helping Hand initiative. “These non-profits support people at every step, including by giving them advice, helping them with paperwork and taking care of their transportation. Yandex technologies will now help them to do this more effectively.”

Charitable organizations that partner with the Helping Hand project will be able to book free taxi rides through Yandex’s ride-hailing service, Yandex Go. The service, which offers rides for the Helping Hand project only from top-rated drivers, is funded by Yandex, as well as through public donations. Each public contribution on the project’s website at help.yandex.ru will be matched by an equal contribution from the company.

The range of free Yandex products and services available to charities and non-profit organizations currently includes Yandex’s project tracking system, cloud storage, email service and a messenger, as well access to a cloud server platform and a telephony service, among many others. All of these tools support non-profit employees and volunteers in their efforts to raise funds and to provide assistance to those in need.

Yandex’s Helping Hand initiative currently partners with charities and foundations that work with individuals with conditions such as cerebral palsy, stroke, spina bifida, osteogenesis imperfecta and other severe disabilities or critical illnesses. As of now, 44 charities and non-profits benefit from free Yandex products and services. Going forward, the Helping Hand project will expand further to add other support programs. It now joins Yandex’s portfolio of social programs, including Educational Initiative, a large-scale project for improving education through technology. 

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Helping Hand is a social support initiative launched by Yandex in the spring of 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Having invested RUB 250 million at the start of the project, Yandex continues to offer its technologies, products and services to charitable foundations and other non-profit organizations free of charge. Between March and September 2020, Yandex provided free taxi rides for 12,000 doctors and medical professionals, transported 13,411 donors to and from blood transfusion centers, and delivered 56,128 food packages and ready meals in partnership with other organizations. The company also provided free transportation for employees and volunteers of charitable organizations during the lockdown. 

Contacts:

Press Office

Mariam Arutyunyan
Phone: +7 495 739-70-00
E-mail: pr@yandex-team.com