Felicitates active women volunteers on International Women’s Day for their efforts and contributions to various CSR initiatives
Delhi: Celebrating women for their unstinted support towards the community, Literacy India today felicitated women heading the CSR initiatives of various corporates houses with a ‘Women for Women, Certificate of Appreciation’. With their sensibility towards social causes, coupled with an eye for details these women have made well-informed decisions and driven CSR campaigns within the organizations to bring about a change in the lives of thousands of underprivileged women and children, thus impacting several families at large. Their consistent efforts have led to a surge in volunteering exercise among corporates and individuals.
During the pandemic and lockdown, these women were leading various campaigns from front to minimise the negative impact that was plaguing various families amid death and disease. With their persistent efforts in their respective organisations, they ensured ration supplies, medicines and study material was made available at the baseline. Some even came forward with tabs and computers for underprivileged children, offering them the much-needed technical support and encouragement for attending online classes uninterrupted.
Literacy India executed many impactful engagement projects and events in partnership with notable corporate volunteers from the likes of Mastercard India, Dell International, DELL EMC, Teleperformance India, KPMG India, KGS, RBS, Microsoft India, Cvent India, Clifford Chance, Aristocrat Technologies, Accenture, GE, UPS Foundation, American Express (AMEX), SVP India and more.
Speaking on the occasion, Captain Indraani Singh, Managing Trustee, Literacy India said, “Over the 26 years of Literacy India’s journey, ‘Volunteering & Employee-giving contributions’ has been many things in many ways for us. We duly acknowledge our partners in this journey who offered not just financial support, but their time and expertise that enabled us to bring about change in the lives of many. In our mission to empower the underprivileged with education and employable skill set a major credit goes to our corporate volunteers who add value to our projects with their support on the ground through various activities, workshops, counselling sessions, and much more.”
At the ceremony, Singh also expressed her appreciation for more than 1000 corporate volunteers who spent quality time and conducted workshops under various Literacy India projects to pave way for a better future for the weaker section of society. The women volunteers have often led counselling sessions for exchange of ideas and offer solutions to women at grassroot level, empowering them with knowledge that can be instrumental in improving their lives and thus society at large.
Lending support to Literacy India, actor Vidya Balan in her video message said, “Our nation can progress only when our children are literate and the women are empowered. I encourage volunteers to join hands with the various pathbreaking projects being undertaken by Literacy India and contribute towards the nation-building exercise.”
Working in synergy with this year’s International Women’s Day theme DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality, Literacy India’s Grass-root Skill to Future Skill project builds technical competencies that go beyond the scope of the curriculum and expose learners to the tremendous possibility of technology along with Financial Literacy, Entrepreneurship workshops, Mentoring, and Creating Learning-aid materials, are all the activities executed pan India with volunteers support of several Corporates.
Literacy India`s Social Enterprise Indha speaks volume on building capacities of women in the communities along with showcasing their quality work for the world to choose. Scores of women entrepreneurs of companies have made Indha their choice in employee gifting. Infact, Indha`s work has been chosen in G20 Summit being hosted by India this year. Indha symbolises ‘walk the talk’ for women empowerment.
With 66% of India’s population under the age of 35, the youth can prove to be a game changer in the economic development of the country. Literacy India understands the onus that lies with the educators and takes pride in its association with the corporate volunteers who share the vision to identify opportunities and prepare these women and children to adapt to an increasingly connected and autonomous world.
QUOTES FROM THREE OF THE WOMEN FROM CSR LEADERSHIPS, BEING FELICITATED BY LITERACY INDIA –
PRITI SINGH, Mastercard India
Mastercard’s association with Literacy India started in 2012 and it has been a wonderful partnership. We work in four broad areas with Literacy India – education of children, empowerment of women as Mastercard CSR initiative is focussed on educating women entrepreneurs on financial inclusion, enhancing the employability of youth to make them job ready for the corporate sector, and environment where we support a lot of tree-plantation drives.
Till date we have supported 22,500 women, youth and children through our association with Literacy India. It has been a strong partnership between Mastercard and Literacy India so far and we will continue to take this forward in the days ahead.”
MS. VENITA SAJWAN, Dell CSR Lead & Volunteers
My association with Literacy India has been an enriching and humbling experience for me as a volunteer. I learned so much about the community, their experiences and the challenges that they face everyday. This association gave me a sense of purpose and fulfillment which always propelled me to do more. Most importantly, how we could harness ‘the power of us’ as a team to support the cause of transforming lives in our community , especially women and girls. Volunteering your time, skills and resources can be just as rewarding for you as for those you are helping and is one of the most powerful ways to make a difference in your own community.
ANANDITA PAHWA, Head, CSR, Pahwa Group
We have been doing a lot of work with Literacy India in the field of education since the past 10+ years that we have partnered with them. This association between Bry-Air and Literacy India started in 2011 with Bry-Air Pathshala to provide access to bridge courses to out-of-school children in a classroom setting and later supported in securing admission in mainstream schools.
In the same Pathshala setting, women are also provided access to stitching and tailoring courses. Both these programs uplift the community by supporting learning and empowerment of children and women. We also provide scholarships to deserving students for higher studies through Literacy India in fields like paramedical training, radiology, etc.
Gyantantra Digital Dost, the learning application developed by Literacy India is also supported by DRI to take forward the idea of creating an inclusive and digital learning environment for children.”
