A joint effort by QRCS and Ansar Gallery to aid struggling families during Ramadan

Following Ramadan 1442 A.H., the Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) and Ansar Gallery signed an agreement to cooperate on humanitarian projects to sustain the community.

Eng. Ibrahim Abdullah Al Malki, CEO of QRCS, and Mohamed Khaldoun Al Mulqi, Deputy General Manager, signed the agreements.

As per the agenda, the involved sides will partner to carry out the Ramadan Provisions programme, which includes providing prepaid vouchers to low-income households enrolled with QRCS’s social assistance services. They can use these coupons to buy food and household goods at any Ansar Gallery location across the country. This will make it easier for the beneficiaries to ensure their food and living needs in the holy month of Ramadan. 

Dr. Ali Akbar Sheikh, Chairman of Ansar Gallery, and Hussein Saadat, CEO of the company, sent greetings via Al Mulqi. With its prestigious status as an ‘investor in giving,’ he lauded QRCS as a landmark in local and international humanitarian action.

“We already have ties with QRCS, supplying local assistance items,” said AlMulqi, adding, “We have donated two walk-through sanitation gates as a complimentary gift to QRCS.”

Eng. Al Malki, though supporting the collaboration with Ansar Gallery, shared his expectation that the relationship would continue beyond Ramadan to encompass the wide variety of social and humanitarian projects carried out by QRCS. He spoke of the increased scope for collaboration in delivering overseas humanitarian assistance, which was stimulated by the values of international partnership and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The signing ceremony was attended by Muna Fadel Al Sulaiti, Executive Director of Volunteering and Local Development Division at QRCS; Hussein Ahmed Mahdi, Assistant General Manager at Ansar Gallery; Hamed Afifi, PR Manager, and Mahmoud Mahrous, Outdoor Sales Executive.

 

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Lulu Hypermarket launches campaign against breast cancer

Doha: Multinational conglomerate Lulu Hypermarket has launched ‘Shop and Donate,’ a campaign
that seeks to allocate part of the sales proceeds of over 700 products during October to support
Qatar Cancer Society’s awareness programme.

Earlier this month, Lulu supported the ‘Blossom Campaign’ that was launched by Qatar Cancer
Society (QCS) on October 1, to raise awareness about breast cancer.
This donation is being given as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and to support
Qatar’s National Vision 2030.

The vision aims to build an advanced society capable of sustaining its development and providing a
high standard of living for its people to achieve its long-term goals.

October is commemorated as Breast Cancer Awareness month, and as part of their campaign, Lulu
showroom staff have marked their participation by wearing a pink ribbon, the worldwide symbol.
The aim is to raise awareness among the customers and staff alike and encourage them to adopt
healthy lifestyles to prevent cancers.

Director of Resources Development Department at QCS, Dr Dera Al Dosari, said, “Wearing Lulu’s
staff the pink ribbon to support QCS’ efforts and to spread awareness epically is not the first time
Lulu supports QCS. This initiative is considered a contribution from Lulu hypermarket in achieving
QCS’ vision to be the community partnership platform to make Qatar a leader in cancer prevention
and its burden control, and the mission.”

“We seek to prevent cancer and control its burden in Qatar by working with our partners to educate
the community and to support, empower, and advocate for individuals living with cancer. We want
to engage in the professional development and scientific research combating cancer,” added Dr
Deara.

He thanked the management and staff of Lulu Hypermarket for their continued efforts in support of
QCS in its cancer awareness initiatives and addressing the needs of cancer patients who cannot
afford the treatment.

He advised all state institutions to support QCS, working in one of the most critical healthcare fields. “The cooperation also includes the participation of QCS’s volunteers to inform Lulu shoppers about the campaign and encourage them on the importance of early detection. Many thanks to Lulu
hypermarket for support,” he added.

By: Nawal Mukadam
Email Id:nawal-m@crowdteck.com

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AAB, DEAP partner for ‘Keep Qatar Clean’ environmental initiative

Doha: Abdullah Abdulghani and Bros. Co. (AAB), an exclusive distributor of Toyota and Lexus
automobiles in Qatar, has partnered with Doha Environmental Action Projects (DEAP), a
volunteering organisation, for ‘Keep Qatar Clean’ environmental initiative, that seeks to fight against plastic pollution and clean up beaches.

This is in line with Toyota’s global CSR values consisting of contribution towards sustainable
development which includes environmental care and consideration towards the planet.

Upon recognizing DEAP’s committed drive in cleaning up the beaches and dunes across Qatar, AAB
extended its support to maximize its reach and clean-ups across the country and increase awareness
and knowledge for the public.

Acting CEO and COO – Automotive Division of AAB, R K Murugan signed the collaboration agreement
with Director of DEAP, Jose Saucedo. AAB has agreed to provide logistic support for DEAP’s daily
operations by way of a Toyota Hilux 4×4 and transportation for DEAP volunteers during the clean-
ups.

A beach clean-up was held recently to launch the partnership between AAB and DEAP, in line with
the World Cleanup Day in one of the beach areas in the north.

AAB has a continuing partnership with the Public Parks Department in the seedlings to your home
and reduction of carbon footprint projects.

These partnerships that promote environmental care reinforce and manifest AAB’s commitment and
active role in contributing towards the fulfilment of Qatar National Vision 2030.

By: Nawal Mukadam
Email Id:nawal-m@crowdteck.com

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COVID-19: NGO Bhumi provides monetary assistance to over 14k daily wagers

Even as India grapples with the containment
of the COVID-19 pandemic, that has wrecked havoc in the lives of people and
caused job losses to millions, Bhumi, one of the country’s largest independent
and youth volunteer non-profit organization has helped over 14 thousand daily
wage workers with direct account transfers and monetary help to over 5000
children in 80 shelter hopes.

In an interview to crowdteck.com, Dr
Prahalathan KK, Co-founder and an ophthalmologist by profession, shares his
experiences while the NGO stood at the forefront in battling the menace of
Corona virus.

Q. Tell us more about NGO Bhumi..

A. Bhumi was founded in 2006 and is today
one of India’s largest youth volunteering organizations. Every year, we enable
over 25,000 volunteers across India for Sustainable Development Goals. We
believe that our approach to education and volunteerism gets stronger and
better with every stride we proactively take. We have over a decade’s
experience in education and are currently working with over 25,000 children.
Bhumi is also a leader in Volunteer Engagement, consistently contributing over 3
lakh hours of volunteering nationally. Our vision is to help build a more
influential, equal and socially-conscious society.

Q. How is your organization coming forth to
help the community during the time of lockdown?

A. In an effort to help the daily wagers,
our helpline volunteers worked day and night to verify their details and
support them with fund transfers. With consistent efforts of our COVID Support
Team, we have managed to help 14,104 daily wagers with direct fund transfers and
5,085 children in 80 shelter homes with grocery supplies. Our education program
teams were also quick to adapt and reinvent themselves with the support of
volunteers. We have managed to initiate online classes for all our projects,
thereby benefiting 1,310 children from 106 shelter homes across India, engaging
around 705 volunteers. Bhumi’s corporate volunteering engagements were also
hugely impacted ‘Work from Home’ being the new norm in this COVID situation. We
have engaged 21 corporates and are organizing close to 60 events with 1,151
corporate volunteers.

Q. What were the challenges faced by your
teams and volunteers when they were on the ground and helping people?

A. With virtual volunteering being the
dominant feature, a lot of our challenges revolved around the use of
technology. The shelter homes, where we wanted to conduct online classes, usually
had little or no access to the internet and computer systems. Even places where
they had access, we had to educate them on online tools like Zoom, Google Meet
etc extensively. Another major challenge was lack of a human touch in these
virtual volunteering initiatives while we were delivering a curriculum or an
activity. It was difficult to understand the emotions and feelings of beneficiaries.
For on-ground volunteering like grocery deliveries and support, fears of
contacting COVID, infrastructural difficulties like transport etc were also
seen.

Q. Did your NGO collaborate with any
Corporates for CSR based activities during the outbreak to help the affected?

A. Our Corporate partners Cognizant, Mckinsey and NTT DATA supported us with funds. Others like IBM, Oracle, CGI, DXC Technology, PayPal, Flex, Aspire Systems, BNP Paribas and Global Mantra Innovations helped us in effectively managing our helpline and delivering groceries to people in need through Corporate volunteering.

By: Nawal Mukadam
Email Id: M@crowdteck.com

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Mental Health under the Weight of a Pandemic

Mental wellbeing matters to all if
you face a mental health problem, you’re not alone! Everyone is presently
focused on something in such tough days that may be oneself, a dream, or a
vision for the foreseeable future ahead.

This is a reminder to slow down
and take a pause to acknowledge that strength lies profoundly in trusting in
oneself, particularly in those times where the mind is full of self-doubt but
you have to channel that energy towards self-belief.

While speaking with Johnson Thomas, co-founder of AASRA Suicide
Prevention NGO, an organization aimed at providing the distressed and the
suicidal with supportive, qualified, and effective confidential care and
assistance, much is required particularly during these difficult times.

Here’s what Johnson had
to unfold in relation to the prevailing pandemic and its consequences:

What kinds of challenges or cases did your
organization come across during the lockdown period?

“Aasra is an
emotional support service over the telephone. Providing people with first aid
psychological counseling, but for this, they need to contact us, we get calls
from all facets of life, because of the recent quarantine, we have taken a
substantial number of calls from the past 3-4 months, with various issues such
as loss of family members or employment, reduced salaries or no earnings at
all, struggling to pay debts or even manage food, relationship concerns,
students with shorter attention span and experiencing study disturbances, and
also people having personal space issues too.”

What kind of support should be expected if one
gets in touch with your volunteers?

“If absolutely
required, we provide them with references to people willing to help them with
their situation, for example, the widest possible people were struggling to
obtain rations during the lockdown, so we connected them with others who aided
them with food and essentials.”

Johnson urges people to
connect with Aasar, an avenue to talk more about their situation and stress
without any fear of judgment or criticism from anywhere in the world on their
24/7 helpline number with professional emotional support volunteers.

During these stressful times, your window
of patience will be tested but with the right guidance and attitude, you can
decide what your new normal can be to maintain positivity.

Always remember two steps forward, one step
backward is still one step forward, so keep your head high and break the
silence.

Aasra has a 24/7 worldwide suicide
prevention helpline number, you can connect with them here http://www.aasra.info/helpline.html

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Change I Network – Changing Lives For Good

Change I Network (CIN) is a registered Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in New Delhi that has been working relentlessly for the upliftment of underprivileged sections through its four flagship programs – Paathshaala, Paryavaran, Perfect Health, and Pahal. 

Founded by Umesh Sharma -an alumnus of the Board of Technical Education, Delhi & Ajay Pandey -an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Indore – the organization is recently catering to the needy and poor sections of the society amidst national lockdown post-COVID 19 crisis. 

Given below is an excerpt from our conversation with Umesh Sharma about their ongoing charitable campaign.

 What is the primary focus/Vision of your organization?

We aspire to inspire civil society through our social work and charitable campaigns for the underprivileged sections through hunger eradication drives, education for all, helping the elderly, and a few other schemes aimed at the empowerment of women. 

How are you helping people in the time of pandemic?

We distributed almost 100 Food Material Kits,

( Wheat Flour – 10 Kg, Rice-5 Kg, Pulses-2 Kg, Salt- 1 Kg & Soap- 4 No) 

We are also running an awareness camp on Covid-19 across different localities in New Delhi through the Change I Network-Pathshala Team. The stress is laid upon mandatory use of masks, social distancing, and maintaining personal hygiene through frequent hand-washing and sanitization.

How many members are there in your team & where do you operate?

We are currently a team of 100 young people, especially students, who usually engage in relief operations in two different shifts. 

Currently, we are running Change I Network Pathshala at Martial, Sector-3, Dwarka.

About the Founder:

Umesh Sharma is an alumnus of the Board of Technical Education (BTE) Delhi and has a Diploma in Automobile Engineering. He has rich exposure of over 14 years of working in the Automobile Industry in used car division, service industry & electric car industry.

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Child Rights and You: A step towards making children smile

CRY – Child Rights and You is an
Indian NGO that believes in every child’s right to a childhood – to live,
learn, grow and play. For over 4 decades, CRY and its 850 initiatives have
worked with parents and communities to ensure Lasting Change in the lives of
more than 3,000,000 underprivileged children, across 19 states in India

Could you tell us the primary motto of your NGO?

CRY’s purpose is to ensure happy and healthy childhoods for
underprivileged Indian children. To ensure their rights are protected and
honoured in a society that is built on respect for dignity, justice, and equity
for all. 

Our mission is to enable people to take responsibility for the
situation of the deprived Indian child and motivate them to seek resolution
through individual and collective action, thereby enabling children to realise
their full potential. And people to discover their potential for action and
change.

What are the programs you undertake to ensure child rights and
welfare?

In terms of our work, we are proud of our unwavering focus on
reaching “the last child” –i.e. the most marginalised children. We work with
children in remote, rural areas, children in conflict zones and urban slums or
backward communities. It is our experience that in situations of extreme
deprivation and struggle for the entire community, it is always children who
are the most vulnerable and neglected. Hence, our interventions address the
root causes of inequity and deficits to ensure that children have a healthy
life, a chance at a proper education, a space to be heard and a safe and secure
environment to grow up in. 

What is the most common issue adversely impacting kids across the
country today? How does your organization aspire to tackle the same?

Access to basic education for many children across the country
continues to be a challenge even today. Even though the number of enrolments in
schools have increased, a section of both boys and girls, especially those between
the ages of 14 to 18 years are compelled to drop-out of schools only to end up
working as child labour across various industries including that of agriculture
or to get married.  

There are also multiple challenges in terms of addressing issues
of malnutrition. To address the multiple issues that confront children today,
CRY’s interventions focus on the following: 

  • Building an agency for children
  • Provision of interim services to meet the immediate and critical needs of children e.g. providing non-formal education or support classes to school drop-outs
  • Influencing knowledge, attitudes, and practices of parents that impinge on children’s rights e.g. superstitions detrimental to breastfeeding practices or attitudes that keep girls out of school
  • Mobilisation and empowerment of underprivileged communities to increase engagement on children’s issues
  • Capacity building of service providers, e.g. teachers, to ensure delivery of quality services
  • Creation or participation in networks and alliances to enable child-friendly policies

Furthermore, our broad-based experience on the ground along with
our efforts in the policy and research arena has given us a unique perspective
on both the micro and macro-level influences on children’s issues. This has
enabled us to create sustainable and replicable models of intervention. 

Do you receive CSR funds? What forms are the primary source of
monetary assistance for your organisation?

Our primary source of funds is individual donations. 
However, we do receive CSR funds, and some of our corporate funders have
included large MNCs like P&G and Oracle, as well as prominent Indian
companies like Hero, Bajaj, and Marico.  

Do you think CSR implementation has been smooth in the country
till now? How could it be enhanced? 

India has a unique corporate social responsibility (CSR) provision
under the Indian Companies Act 2013, which mandates CSR for any company meeting
certain profit, turnover or net-worth criteria.

While the CSR clause is a breakthrough initiative in the CSR arena,
there are some limitations to the clause which need to be debated and
addressed, namely: 

A mandatory CSR spend can result in an increase in the focus on
quantifying CSR vs. a qualitative assessment of what makes strategic sense for
the company. It also runs the risk of diluting the attention on how companies
make their profit rather than focusing on how they spend their profit. CSR has
to be strategic and linked to the business. 

The Act recommends that the company shall give preference to the
local areas around where it operates. This may result in skewed resource
allocation as most business houses and manufacturing facilities are located in
developed states while the resource requirement is more in the under-developed
states where industrial presence is limited. 

The Act also encourages companies to implement their CSR
activities by establishing their own trusts/societies. However, social and
development issues are often complex and local civil society organisations are
likely to be better equipped to understand these unique issues and offer
solutions for the same. In addition, many of these civil society organisations
operate from the larger framework of social justice and not just on a project
or activity basis.  Therefore, partnering with such organisations will
enable bringing in the aspect of social sustainability into the CSR
strategy. 

The clause does not address core business impacts as set out by
the guidelines developed by the Government itself and the state’s duties in
line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights which India
endorsed in 2011.

In addition to some of the limitations in the law itself, there is
a lack of a unified view on CSR, which includes lack of clarity on the
definition of CSR, its agenda, actions, and reporting. The question for
corporations and CSR practitioners is how to craft CSR strategies that reflect
a company’s business values while addressing social, humanitarian and
environmental challenges.

A few key elements to be considered are given below: 

  • Integration of
    responsibility within the long term objectives of the organization. It’s
    aligned with the vision and mission of the organization.
  • Structure and
    role definition: Who within the company is responsible for crafting and
    driving CSR strategy and implementation?
  • Stakeholders:
    Which different stakeholders will the CSR strategy involve, influence and
    impact? 
  • Clear
    objectives and programme design
  • Communication
    – internal and external for synergy, adoption, and extension of agenda
  • Reviewing
    mechanism – a measurement of impact and reporting 

About Kreeanne Rabadi:

A post-graduate diploma holder in Early Childhood Care &
Education (ECCE) from Sophia College Polytechnic, Kreeanne Rabadi began her
career at ORG-MARG designing market research projects for children. She was
with the company for six years, conducting qualitative and quantitative
research for a diverse set of clients – MTV, Colgate Palmolive, Godrej Foods,
etc. 

She joined CRY-Child Rights and You in 2000 to
lead the Resource Generation team in the Western region. Kreeanne spent five
years with CRY in India, enabling her team to consistently exceed its revenue
targets. In 2005, she was assigned the challenge of setting up the marketing
function for CRY America, for which she moved to the US.

By: Abdullah

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Decorating Childhood Through Educating One Child at a Time

The Future of Education Looks Bright with Alankaar:

Introducing Alankaar India Trust, a registered non-profit organization
founded by a team of 8 accordant professionals in March 2018, to create a
positive learning environment for underprivileged kids. They have centers at
Sec-15 Part 2, Sec-14 & Sec-45 across Gurgaon with a total strength of
around 90 kids.

Their team comprises over 60 active volunteers teaching the
underprivileged children every day a week. Along with teaching, Alankaar is a
community that believes in generating awareness on issues related to society,
environment, and general ethics.

The Primary Focus of the
Organization

Alankaar India Trust is a non-profit organization with the vision to
assist the needy while keeping a unilateral focus on education. They believe in
raising awareness and making education their central focus of their students
themselves, making it important for students to grow and prosper.

Courses and Teaching Staff
Recruitment at Alankaar

They focus exclusively on topics such as English and Mathematics. They
also concentrate on other subjects like Science (Chemistry, Biology),
Computers, Art/Crafts, Moral Science. Apart from this, they conduct regular
awareness sessions on saving our environment, decreasing pollution, health
& hygiene, safety, etc.

Their team of teachers (i.e. volunteers) comprises individuals of
different age groups and educational qualifications which challenge perceptions
and ensures creativity. They hire students as well as working professionals;
priority being what value the individual can add to the organisation.

Since its inception, the Alankaar Foundation is fortunate enough to have
found passionate volunteers who take time out from their busy schedule to teach
underprivileged children after office hours or over the weekend. As of now,
funding is limited to hire paid teachers to teach underprivileged children.

Approaching the Biggest Challenges Faced by Indian Education,
But How?

According to them, the major challenge being confronted by Indian
education is the environment the children are being brought up along with the
mindset of parents. The lack of a practical approach in the teaching methods
seems to have a deep impact on the interest of a child in a particular subject.
Considering India’s diverse cultural groups, they believe that the emphasis
should be made on bridging the language barriers.

The problems in the education system can be approached through providing
good quality education in the schools itself, with a focus on children with
special needs. It is also important to encourage a friendly atmosphere for
children; to give students freedom of creativity.

Raising Funds to Support the Organisation:

Alankaar has a serious policy of not approaching any individual or
corporate for funds or donations, but we do accept voluntary funds. The Alankaar
Community comprises 150 volunteers who voluntarily contribute on a requirement
basis.

As for receiving monetary CSR funds from corporates, Shobhit Saxena, the
Co-founder and Chairman of Alankaar India Trust, highlighted, “No, we haven’t received any monetary
CSR Fund from any corporate to date. But yes, we did receive some contributions
in kind (stationery items, etc.) from various corporations in the past
year.”

Evolving the Future with Digital Learning:

Along with generic academic classes, Alankaar conducts awareness-raising
sessions on subjects like digital learning and promotes overall development by
starting with basics such as MS paint, MS Excel, etc. Awareness activities such
as plantation drives along with fun-based competitions are arranged to
strengthen various skills.

They have also started video learning sessions on Phonetics etc. under their digital learning program last year but due to lack of resources, it was discontinued.

About Shobhit Saxena:

Shobhit Saxena is the Co-founder and Chairman of Alankaar India Trust and is also currently working as a lead solution architect at Tata Consultancy Services, Gurgaon.

To bring underprivileged children to the mainstream, Saxena toyed with the idea of giving free classes to train/educate underprivileged kids academically/ vocationally with a group of committed volunteers.

By: abdulla@kazisoftwaresolutions.com

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