170 employees from Mphasis on a volunteering mission
India CSR News Network
BANGALORE: Corporates no longer just want to contribute financial resources to social causes. They want to get involved hands-on, understanding social issues from a fully grounded perspective. Corporates want their employees to directly engage with social causes.
The Mphasis finance team decided to spend half of their team outing volunteering for The/Nudge Foundation’s Gurukuls. The 170 employees were engaged in various activities like teaching students, wall painting, cleaning a ground for the Swachh Bharath campaign, sports with students, and creating a garden. An impromptu skit was also organised to teach Gurukul students various life skills.
Gurukul student Reeta says, “The volunteers taught me English at length, which I found useful. They taught both written and spoken English. It was good to be taught by them, I don’t know English that well.”
Suryanarayanan V, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Mphasis said, “The whole objective is that we felt a need to give something back to society. My team’s annual offsite is not just fun and games but social activities that strengthens the bond within the team. We decided The/Nudge was best option for us to impart our skills and help build a stronger society from the grass-roots.
The/Nudge Foundation’s Model is very enterprising and relevant in our current environment where the underprivileged don’t have a means of livelihood. What is good about The/Nudge is that it is not just imparting education but also lifeskills. The LIFE/GUARD program through which The/Nudge provides continuous support to students is a very interesting aspect of this. I want to congratulate The/Nudge in doing a stellar job in giving back to society.”
Speaking about today’s volunteering effort Suryanarayanan V said, “It was an overwhelming and humbling experience. Promise to come back.”
The event went well with some enthusiastic participation from the Mphasis volunteers, said Gopal K, Head of Operations, at The/Nudge Foundation, “I am glad it really went well. People were really touched. There was so much happiness and satisfaction. The energy and enthusiasm of the volunteers was tremendous. It is great to see corporates wanting to directly engage in social causes.”
Anuj Midha, Head of Corporate Engagement, The/Nudge Foundation said, “In terms of participation everyone was engaged. Everyone was very enthusiastic. Corporates no longer just want to donate money, they want to engage on the ground with social work.”
The Mphasis volunteers enthusiastically cleaned up a ground as a part of their contribution to the Swachh Bharat campaign. Volunteers then played on the ground with Gurukul students. Volunteers engaged with the students, who in turn sang songs for them. A lovely garden was created and the walls were beautifully repainted. Vivek Jain, the Finance VP taught students numeracy and digital literacy. Overall amazing work by enthusiastic Mphasis volunteers.
The/Nudge Foundation, a non-profit startup, is a collective initiative of some of India’s brightest entrepreneurs, leaders and change-makers coming together to tackle the greatest human development challenge of our times – poverty. The goal of the foundation is to bring 1 million people out of poverty. The/Nudge foundation is supported by Nandan Nilekani and Tata Trusts and boasts of an illustrious advisory board including Dr. Devi Shetty (Chairman and Founder, Narayana Health); Manish Sabharwal (Chairman, Teamlease); Kiran Karnik (ex-President of NASSCOM); Arun Seth, (Ex-Chairman British Telecom & Alcatel Lucent); Hugo Barra, (VP, Xiaomi); Dr. Pramath Sinha, (Founding Dean, ISB); Naveen Tewari, (Founder & CEO InMobi), Vijay Shekhar Sharma, (Founder Paytm & One97), Manish Dugar (CFO, InMobi), Neeraj Arora, (VP, WhatsApp Messenger), Ajit Rangnekar (ex-Dean, ISB); G Ananthapadmanabhan (CEO, Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives); and Maneesh Dhir (Ex-MD, Apple India)
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