The following is a guest blog post by Simon Bickert, Avanade consultant.

I’m quite honored to share a wonderful campaign that we just completed with Avanade employees in ASG (Austria, Switzerland and Germany). It was a goodwill program centered on a smartphone hardware exchange to support the eradication of Polio in the world. For those who may not know much about Polio or Poliomyelitis, it is a highly contagious viral infection whose victims tend to be the most vulnerable: the very young, pregnant women and people with weak immune systems. The infection can lead to paralysis, breathing problems, or even death.

While the ASG team was in the process of receiving our highly-anticipated Nokia Lumia smartphones with Windows Phone 8, my colleague Nabil Aberkane and I sat together to discuss how we could put the old devices to good use. Nabil came across this initiative called End Polio Now run by the Rotary Club Berlin International (RCBI) in cooperation with the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. One way to support their mission was to donate mobile phones which would be refurbished and sold with the earned money donated to the Rotary Club.

Over several months, we motivated our Avanade ASG colleagues to donate their privately-owned smartphones, which had been replaced with company-sponsored phones. The response to our initiative was fantastic and we found many supporters.

Simon Bickert and Nabil Aberkane holding a recognition letter from the Rotary Club

In total, we collected 69 smartphones that were securely wiped by a dedicated service provider who then sold them to earn 1.511,32 Euros translating into 3,022 vaccinations to help end Polio. These vaccinations protect children and other vulnerable people in many regions around the world from the Polio infection, which has recently emerged around Syria.

Together with our Avanade colleagues, we are grateful that these 3,022 vaccinations will lead to a safer and healthier world for children and all endangered people in affected regions.

A huge “Thank You” goes out to all who supported this great initiative and helped make it successful. All of this would not have been possible without the engagement of those who donated their privately-owned devices. Nabil and I are very happy and thankful that our dedication to this initiative will help end Polio around the world.