Amway India celebrates International White Cane Day with National Association for the Blind
Organized ‘Master Chef with a difference’ cooking contest and a talent show among the visually impaired students from National Association for the Blind in Chandigarh
Amway India, the country’s largest FMCG Direct Selling company celebrated International White Cane Day with 10 NGO partners for the 18th consecutive year by organizing myriad initiatives. In Chandigarh, Amway organized a unique ‘Master Chef with a difference’ contest among the visually impaired students of National Association for the Blind – Chandigarh & Punjab state branch. The chief guest of the occasion was Ms Navjot Kaur, Director, Social Welfare Department, UT, Chandigarh.
The culinary competition saw participation from 10 visually impaired students of NAB who took the challenge of cooking their favourite dishes. The visually impaired students of NAB prepared local delicacies like Dhokla, Halwa, Vermicelli, Namkeen rice, Maggi, Bhel Puri etc. showcasing remarkable culinary talent despite their physical limitations. The talent show witnessed participation of more than 25-30 visually impaired students who showcased their skills in areas like singing, dancing, poem, speech recitation, mimicry etc.
Commenting on the occasion, Mr. GS Cheema, Sr Vice President, North & South, Amway India said, “Amway has been supporting and promoting the welfare of the visually impaired individuals since 1999. Our experience of close to two decades of working with the visually impaired has made us realize us that an individual’s ability is always stronger than his disability and physical limitations can be overcome with the right education, knowledge and guidance. We have been providing avenues for the education & empowerment of the visually impaired to help them discover their abilities by organising such interesting activities. For us, the International White Cane Day holds great significance and multiple initiatives are being organized across the country to celebrate the progress and achievements of the visually impaired. We are delighted that we could contribute to their growth and shall continue to provide much needed support in the future.”
Mr. Vinod Chadha, Honorary President, National Association for the Blind – Chandigarh & Punjab state branch, said, “International White Cane Day is observed to celebrate the independence of visually impaired individuals. It is heartening to see that the visually impaired are getting the opportunities of actively participating in the mainstream activities. Amway has been one of the prominent companies in the country who has played a pivotal role to serve the community. We are thankful to Amway India for coming forward to support the cause. These efforts will surely help us go a long way.”
Amway, under the National Project for the Visually Impaired, has undertaken various initiatives to support the cause of visually impaired including: –
- Amway has supported more than 85,000 visually impaired children with Braille textbooks across 12 States.
- Amway has been providing computer training to the visually impaired since 2008 and has set up 15 computer centers across the country. A total of 1000 visually impaired individuals are getting benefited at the Amway supported computer centers annually.
- Amway has also set-up 33 audio/braille libraries across India; launched a travel and tourism course in Kolkata; set-up a BPO in Madurai; set-up music academies for the visually impaired in Chandigarh, Raipur and Guwahati.
- Amway has supported the program digitizing class XIIth educational material for National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), as well as select graduation and post-graduation educational material for Delhi University, Mumbai University and Hyderabad/EFLU University, which is helping different abled especially visually impaired students across the country.
- Amway’s commitment to educate the visually-impaired, led Amway to launch an Android-based application ‘Accessible Reader’, which leverages available text-to-speech engines and makes it convenient for the visually impaired to read digital documents.
About Amway India CSR initiatives
- Amway India’s CSR initiatives are based on the belief that social responsibility is much more than the incurrence of a cost or a resource or a charitable/ philanthropic act of social benefit. It is an opportunity to bring in social innovation and change. This belief is articulated in Amway’s vision of helping people live better lives. When it comes to commitment to corporate citizenship, Amway India makes a serious and concentrated effort to reach out and help people improve their lives.
- Amway India supports a comprehensive CSR programme covering a gamut of initiatives including a water conservation project to improve the ground water level in 7 villages in the Dindigul district located around the manufacturing plant. Amway supports a village health program targeted at 26 villages in the Dindigul district, to provide quality healthcare to the underprivileged. The treatment includes general health check-up, select pathological tests and medicines at zero cost to the beneficiaries. In a span of over 20 months over 240 free health camps have been organised benefitting more than 50,000 people from local communities.
- Amway India set up a telemedicine center in the Dindigul district to ensure a consistent healthcare support to the villagers. This program has eliminated distance barriers and improved access to medical services in distant rural communities. The center aims at providing free medical treatment to over 7,000 patients in a year.
- Last year Amway India launched a Community Health & Entrepreneurship Program in the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to offer livelihood training in Entrepreneurship skills and business fundamentals with the objective to promote self-employment among women and to create awareness on affordable health and hygiene practices.
- Recently Amway India has launched the community-based nutrition education program to improve the nutritional status among children (below 5 years) in the select slum areas of West Delhi. The program focuses on prevention, early detection and improved access to care in line with the National Nutrition Mission, Govt. of India.
- As a key focus area, Amway has taken various initiatives to support the cause of visually impaired. Amway also supports underprivileged children in education, health and hygiene under a project titled ‘Sunrise’. Under this project, Amway currently supports more than 15 NGOs across the country.
- Amway India has been conferred with the ‘CSR Leadership Summit & Award’ in the category of ‘Promoting Employment for Specially-abled’.
- Amway India was also recently awarded with the ‘Best Corporate’ award in the ‘Specially-abled’ category at the prestigious National CSR Summit & Awards 2018 for its invaluable contribution towards the welfare of visually impaired by CSR Times.
