MUMBAI: Godfrey Phillips Bravery, a corporate social responsibility initiative of Godfrey Phillips India, today honored the winners of Godfrey Phillips Bravery Zone Awards 2011. The Awards were presented by Swami Sukhabodhananda, Founder Chairman of Prasanna Trust who also delivered a sermon on Bravery through the teachings of Bhagwad Gita.
Ms. Nita Kapoor, Executive Vice President, Marketing & Corporate Affairs, Godfrey Phillips India, said “My best wishes to all our winners and nominees. In our journey of 20 years to find and bring to attention acts of bravery by common people, we have awarded over 1200 bravehearts. Our award winners and nominees are the true mark of the impact; our initiative has had since its inception in 1990. We hope that these stories will encourage more people to imbibe the spirit of bravery in their everyday life.”
She added, “With our two initiatives, Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards and Amodini, we have been working to promote the values of courage and empowerment in society. We have till date empowered 7,000 women directly and hope to increase this number manifold in the years to come.”
Details of the winners:
The Zone comprised of entries from Maharashtra, Goa and Chhattisgarh for the Godfrey Phillips Zonal Bravery Awards 2011. The Social Bravery Award was given to Berojgar Mahila Sewa Samiti (BMSS). The NGO has been engaged in environment protection, judicious utilization of natural resources, drought mitigation and poverty alleviation programmes through self-help groups. The Samiti has also launched several awareness campaigns like Jagruti, Kavach, and Khushi, to promote prevention of HIV/AIDS among truckers, migrant labours and commercial sex workers.
The Social Bravery Award was also presented to Abhishek Bhowmick of Maharashtra who spends more than 30% of his salary for the welfare of stray animals, like feeding, medication, vaccination and even transportation of injured animals to hospitals. He feeds over 30 dogs every day.
Smt. Phoolbasan Bai Yadav of Chhattisgarh has been awarded Amodini Award for her exemplary work towards empowerment of poor women. Presently her 1540 WSHGs impacts 19,780 women. These women have taken up unconventional profession like mine contracts, bricks and roof tiles construction, fisheries, market contracts and running fair price shops etc.
The Physical Bravery Special Award was presented to the parents of Late Rueben Fernandes and Late Keenan Santos from Maharashtra, who lost their lives after fighting a battle with dozen goons for safeguarding the honor of their female friends. The Special Physical Bravery Award was also presented to Master Kiran Bhatt, an 11 year old boy from Goa who saved his 5 year old brother Vishwanath Vighneshwar Bhatt from drowning and Smt. Lajja V Sharma, from Maharashtra, who saved a young girl, when a miscreant was misbehaving with her after looting other lady travellers, in a moving train when she was travelling in Jammu-Tawi Express in a ladies compartment. Sh. Bhisham Singh from Chhattisgarh also received the Physical Bravery Special Award for saving the lives of people.
Physical Bravery Award – Pritam Babaraoji Shinde from Maharashtra received the Physical Bravery Award for saving the lives of several people.
The Mind of Steel Award was awarded to Sh. Raju Rameshwar Uprade of Maharashtra. Sh. Uprade did his Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology after obtaining scholarship from ‘Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Communication & Information Technology’ in 2002. Today despite being physically challenged, he is a part of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research for a GMRT project. His undeterred zeal to command a respectable life for himself makes him Mind of the Steel Award Winner.
Godfrey Phillips India instituted the Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards in 1990. These Awards bring to light the uncommon spirit of the common man, and gives recognition to extraordinary yet little known acts of physical valor, social service and humanitarian deeds. The purpose of the Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards is to instill amongst people the culture of selfless action. With its two initiatives, Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards and Amodini, over 1,200 bravehearts have been honored and 7,000 women empowered directly.
Since inception in 1990, these awards have grown to encompass 20 states – Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Goa, Himachal Pradesh and the recent addition of Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The five zonal awards will be followed by the national awards, which will take place in Delhi.
