CSR: Sun Life ASC’s Grain Bucket Challenge provides 3005 Kgs dry food materials to the underprivileged

CSR vision is to aid our employees in feeling the essence of sharing and giving; and making an impact in the communities we live in

NEW DELHI (India CSR): Sun Life Asia Service Center (ASC) Gurgaon, provides Business Processing, IT, and Investment Research shared services to Sun Life Financial’s global businesses, one of the world’s leading Insurance companies.

With the aim to go beyond the business interests of the organization to serve the community, the employees of Sun Life ASC ran a voluntary Grain Bucket Challenge initiative where the organization collected 3,005 kgs of dry food materials in 3 weeks.

Grain Bucket 2019 was the second chapter of the Grain Bucket Challenge which was first undertaken in 2015 when 1728 kg of dry food materials was collected and donated amongst different NGOs. This year, the collected materials were donated to three NGOs- Harmony House, Akashaparavakal and National NGO.

Harmony House is an out of school learning centre for underprivileged children. The grains that are donated help in providing mid-day meals to approximately 550 students on daily basis. The leftover food is further donated to Feeding India (NGO). Akashaparavakal is home to 43 mentally challenged destitute people.

The dry food donated by Sun Life ASC helps the NGO with their daily food requirements. National NGO is a trust that provides free meals to approximately 500 patients/ by-standers and hungry people in and around Govt. hospitals and other public places in Delhi NCR.

With an aim to engage with the community as responsible employees, Sun Life ASC employees organize voluntary CSR activities with NGOs. Approximately 2,822 employees have participated in CSR initiatives this year volunteering approximately 1,237 hours of their time to be of service to the community. It has been estimated that approximately 3,702 lives have been impacted positively through these programs.

Rajeev Bhardwaj, VP-HR says, “At Sun Life ASC India, our CSR vision is to aid our employees in feeling the essence of sharing and giving; and making an impact in the communities we live in, instead of simply donating to charities. The Grain Bucket Challenge is one such employees voluntary CSR initiative, where we are proud to announce that employees voluntarily donated dry food materials and challenged their fellow employees to do the same. As a result, we collected 3005 kgs of dry food items in just 3 weeks  to be distributed amongst the underprivileged

Our CSR initiatives enable access to nutritious and safe food for deprived children; and provides people with disabilities the opportunities to attain sustainable employment opportunities through livelihood training and special education programs.”

Sun Life ASC has also partnered with Sai Swayam Society for the Hearing Impaired, a registered NGO under which it provides Livelihood trainings to the speech and hearing impaired (SHI) youth. 38.33% of the trained youth are females. 87.47% of the trained PwD have been successfully placed in jobs.

Sun Life ASC India has also joined hands with The Akshaya Patra Foundation to contribute towards their fight to eradicate classroom hunger. As part of this initiative mid-day meals are being served to approximately 630 children daily.