On August 15, 2012, the Essar Foundation celebrated the nation's 65th Independence Day with a group of street children in Mumbai, accompanied by 20 young management students of IES Institute of Management.
The students had signed up with the Foundation on an internship to participate in social service activities for three months. The institute as a part of its curriculum mandates that students to community service through attachment with a corporate house. The idea is to expose the students to the social commitment of various corporate houses.
On August 15, the program's activities revolved around the 'Best of Waste' theme. The students, with the help of a facilitator, helped the children to understand the concepts of 'Reduce, reuse and recycle'. The children were then shown how to create different interesting objects from waste paper, plastics, used polythene bags.
Many of the children attending the program are street dwellers who are often employed as child laborers and pedlars on the streets. Due to this they come in contact with a lot of hazardous wastes. The dangers of these were explained to the children and they were also taught about separating dry and wet waste, and how wet waste can be used as manure.
Later a poster competition was organized where the children had to use waste materials and crayons to express the idea of recycling.
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A special I-Day treat for Paradeepgarh Panchayat’s children
The Essar Foundation is dedicated to spreading the light of education among underprivileged children through the promotion of creative methods of teaching and learning.
On August 15, 2012, it organized a unique and meaningful program for the children of Paradip, Odisha, which included the screening of the National Award-winning children’s movie I Am Kalam. The aim was to inspire the children to overcome difficulties and pursue a meaningful education.
At present, the Department of Culture, Government of Odisha, is executing children’s films in the state capital Bhubaneshwar, which have so far not been extended to any other district as yet. However, this program was the first of its kind to be held in the district, and saw the participation of as many as 400 students and teachers from seven villages of Paradeepgarh Panchayat, in addition to Essarities, who participated as volunteers.
It is hoped that by screening an increasing number of children’s films, more children will be inspired to pursue their educational dreams.
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Foundation distributes school supplies in Kirandul
At Kirandul, Chhattisgarh, special efforts were made to reach
out to as many as 8,500 students and 500 teachers from government schools in
Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh (especially in villages along the Essar
operations).
As part of the event, students were given study materials (books on alphabets, numbers and tables) and stationery.
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Observation of 66th Independence day by Dabuna CSR Team
The CSR team at Dabuna celebrated the day with school
children as well as employee volunteers on by organizing a drawing competition,
themed on 'Vision of India on Independence Day'.
As part of Essar’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policy formulated by the Essar Foundation, ‘education’ is one of the major intervention areas identified to enhance quality of life of people in and around the company’s project operational areas. This has been the thrust of program conducted in the villages near Dabuna Beneficiation Plant of Essar Steel in the tribal dominated Keonjhar District of Odisha.
On Independence Day, five high schools and a total of 410 students from Class I to VII participated in the drawing competition.
Winners were awarded school bags and 30 more prizes were awarded to students on the basis of their work. Eleven Essar employees volunteered to organize the event.
