Amway Opportunity Foundation Celebrates 15 Glorious Years of Amway in India, Organizes CSR Summit

INDIACSR News Network

NEW DELHI: In a befitting manner to commemorate 15 glorious years of Amway in India, Amway Opportunity Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of Amway India, the largest  direct selling FMCG Company of the country, has played host to a National Summit on Corporate Social Responsibility – Sustainable Development’ in Delhi today.

At a formal function at the Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre in Delhi, Shri Anurag Thakur, Member of Parliament , Joint  Secretary of BCCI and Member of Indian Olympic Association inaugurated the first ever national summit on “Corporate Social Responsibility – Sustainable Development” organized under the aegis of Amway Opportunity Foundation in presence of Mr. Samir Behl, Regional President – Europe , India, Africa, Amway  Corporation and Mr. William S Pinckney, MD &CEO Amway India and Chairman , Amway Opportunity Foundation.

On the occasion, Amway Opportunity Foundation also announced the institution of AOF Young Achievers Awards – the first ever national platform from AOF to recognize the talent and efforts of young achievers from differently abled sections of the society across India.  Five youngsters from different parts of India have won the inaugural edition of prestigious AOF Young Achievers Awards. AOF has appreciated the relentless effort of J. Rajashekar Reddy from Hyderabad- the first visually challenged Chartered Accountant from Andhra Pradesh & the fourth from India,  Mamta Namdev Tambe, a visually challenged girl from Mumbai,a topper in academics and an employee from State Bank of India , Nilotpal Baishya, visually challenged teacher with Guwahati Blind High School, Ambalal Gurjar, from Jodhpur–a visually challenged sports personality with 33 medals in national and international sports and inspired them to evolve as the role models for others and Md. Zubeer Ahmed, Hyderabad- Assistant Professor in the department Political Science, Janki Devi Memorial College ,Delhi University.

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Commenting on the initiative, Mr. William S Pinckney, MD, Amway India and Chairman, Amway Opportunity Foundation, said, “The year 2013 is very special to us as we have completed 15 glorious years of our business in India. During this period Amway India has touched the lives of millions of people empowering themselves. At Amway, We take pride in our past and have faith in the future. The National Summit on Corporate Social Responsibility – Sustainable Development’ is a humble step that reiterates our commitment towards the society. We are quite hopeful that this forum will be successful in generating novel and dynamic ideas from all key stakeholders in space of social responsibility that would help us meet the goal of inclusive growth.”

Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Samir Behl, Regional President – Europe, India, Africa, Amway Corporation, said, “The growing importance of CSR across the globe as well as India has rewritten the relationship of business with not just the shareholders, but its various stakeholders including employees, supply chain partners, government, creditors, customers and surrounding communities. At Amway, We do believe that we can grow, prosper and flourish together and our welfare activities across the globe including India testify our philosophy. The year 2013 is a significant year for us globally as well as we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of our Global CSR campaign ONE BY ONE Campaign For Children that has impacted 10 million lives of children. Every year our welfare activities under the aegis of Amway Opportunity Foundation benefit over 12000 children in India. We have succeeded in this sustainable endeavor with the support of our distributors and employees.”

The National Summit also witnessed two sessions of Panel discussions. The session one Inclusive Growth-Government, NGO & Corporate Partnership began with a brief introduction on the concept and genesis of Inclusive Growth which was chaired by Dr. K. K. Upadhyay, Head, CSR Division – FICCI along with speakers such as Dr. Anil Aneja,Vice President, All India Confederation For The Blind; Mr. T. K. Mathew, Secretary & Chief Executive, Deepalaya, Dr. Kanchan Gaba, Secretary, National Association For The Blind-West Bengal and Mr. Rajat Banerjee, Head, Corporate Affairs, Amway India .

The 2nd part of the session laid focus on ‘’ CSR- 2% mandatory contribution by Corporates” and began with a brief presentation on the topic by the speaker Dr. Amit Chatterjee, Technical Director Development Sector Practice, KPMG. The session II was chaired by Mr. Yoginder Singh, Senior VP- Legal & Corporate Affairs, Amway India and Treasurer/ Member Trustee- Amway Opportunity Foundation with speakers such as Shri Rajiv Tikoo, Director & Editor – OneWorld South Asia, Padma Shri Dr. Sai Baba Goud, & Founder Chairman, Devnar Foundation, Padma Shri Mr. Kanu Bhai Tailor, Trustee – Disable Welfare Trust of India and Dr. Amit Chatterjee ,Technical Director- Development Sector Practice, KPMG.

Registered under Societies Act, AOF a non-profit organization has been actively associated with several projects on child welfare across the country for the last 15 years. AOF’s mission is to help provide quality health and education with specific focus on the visually challenged child. AOF adopted the cause of education for the visually challenged under its National Project for the Blind and undertook printing and distribution of Braille Textbooks to school going blind students in 15 states of the country. AOF also commissioned a specialized computer centre at Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys Academy, Narendrapur, Kolkata, first of such centre in eastern India. Along with Amway distributors, it organizes health camps, blood donation camps, Hepatitis vaccination camps on a regular basis for underprivileged children and common citizens across the country. Every year AOF benefits over 12,000 children (9,000 children through Project Sunrise & 3,000 children through computer centre project)