A book donation drive with local partners to empower India’s younger generation
India CSR News Network
NEW DELHI: Alibaba Group today announced the launch of Mission Million Books, inviting Indian citizens to donate textbooks and educational material for the benefit of the underprivileged. Mission Million Books is a pan-India initiative aimed at providing the underserved with access to quality educational materials for their growth and advancement. Alibaba Group, in association with Crossword and Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust, will work with its partners to solicit donations, collect and deliver textbooks to schools and colleges across India.
The campaign’s partners are The World Bank Family Network Book Project, Delhivery, Kotak Mahindra Bank, mGage India, Shoppers Stop, HyperCity and Rotary Club of Bombay Worli.
The Mission Million Books initiative supports the Indian government’s efforts to enable access to quality education for all. It will open doors for numerous educational institutions to have access to, and enhance the quality of, academic material provided to their students. Collected material will be distributed to more than 2,500 educational institutions across India. A book donation ceremony is scheduled for the beneficiary schools in Mumbai towards end of September, 2016.
Guru Gowrappan, Global Managing Director, Alibaba Group said, “Quality education is everyone’s right and plays a fundamental role in building character and intelligence at an early age, ultimately shaping a nation. We believe that every child in India must have the opportunity to learn and cultivate a reading habit which is an important ingredient for learning and building curiosity.”
“We strongly believe in empowering youth to realize their full potential, and access to quality education is a means to achieve this goal. We are grateful to our partners for embarking on this important journey with us. I invite everyone to contribute and make this vision a grand success for the future generations of India,” added Mr Gowrappan.
In addition to mobilizing and coordinating with all partners to prepare for the Mission Million Books project, Alibaba Group will also donate over 50,000 books to the campaign, and Alibaba.com and UC Web will provide online marketing support to maximize the impact.
As part of the campaign, The World Bank Family Network Book Project has already donated 30,000 books. As the project’s associate partner, Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust will coordinate with schools and provide on-ground execution support. Crossword, Shoppers Stop and HyperCity will set up book collection points in 65 locations; Delhivery will arrange book pickups through its over 6,000 locations across India; mGage India will provide mobile marketing and engagement for the campaign, and Kotak Mahindra Bank’s over 1,300 branches spread across India’sKona Kona will provide support for collecting books, while members from Rotary Club of Bombay Worli will help with book collection, sorting, distribution and donation.
How to Donate
Donations can be made between August 18 – September 16, 2016, at 1,300+ branches of Kotak Mahindra Bank, as well as Shoppers Stop, HyperCity, and Crossword stores across major cities in India. Pick-up services from Delhivery are available for donations of 20 books or above. Please call toll free hotline 1800-103-7598 where representatives will provide the required information and guidelines for donation, or visitwww.books.alibaba.com for details.
Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume. Founded in 1999, the company provides the fundamental technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help businesses leverage the power of the Internet to establish an online presence and conduct commerce with hundreds of millions of consumers and other businesses.
