• Corporate Social Responsibility
•           Long term projects
• • Rural
  • Urban
• One time support

Rural projects

Residential shelter home for boys in Jodhpur, Rajasthan

Following the success of the residential shelter home in Behraich, the Company decided to support another programme on similar lines in association with its NGO partner, Pratham in Jodhpur.

Jodhpur is home to a large number of street children trying to earn a living on railway stations or by begging in tourist places. These children live in dire conditions and are often addicted to solvents. Most of them are from Jodhpur or come from nearby states lured by the tourist city’s promise.

Pratham has been working with children in the slums of Jodhpur since 2006. The program began with 10 contact centers in Jodhpur, which reached out to the working and out-of-school children. In a year’s, time all the children were mainstreamed in formal schools and that led to the establishment of credibility among the various Government departments. The idea of setting up of a residential shelter for boys in Jodhpur is one part of an intervention in the undeserved community.

This shelter home supported by GSK India renders residential support to 50 vulnerable children belonging to this region with the following specific objectives:

• Non formal education to help the children achieve basic competencies
• Mainstreaming the boys under 12 years of age into formal schools
• Providing the boys over 12 years of age with at least one pre-vocational skill
• Teaching basic computer literacy
• Ensuring good mental and physical health
• Encouraging extracurricular activities: for attitudinal and behavioural changes

Nanhi Kali – A program for education of the girl child in Kanker district, Chattisgarh

Nanhi Kali is a sponsorship program, which provides 10 years of quality education to disadvantaged girl children across the country. The K.C. Mahindra Education Trust and Naandi Foundation jointly manage the project. Currently, they reach out to over 61,000 Nanhi Kalis across 7 states of the country.

Research shows that girls’ education yields some of the highest returns of all development investments. It also plays a crucial role in alleviating poverty but in a country like ours, typically, girls receive less education compared to boys because of the perceived and actual costs of girls schooling on households. It is for this reason that the Nanhi Kali project was set up in 1996.

Chhattisgarh is a young state, where one-third of the state population is tribal. In this state, GSK India has chosen a relatively remote Kanker district for this project. Kanker has a tribal population of nearly 60%. Education, particularly girl’s education is the least important component of their lives. The Nanhi Kali project is already underway in 3 blocks of Narhapur, Charama and Bhanupratapur in the Kanker district.

GSK India supports quality education of 1000 girls in this project that provides:

• Material Support: Material support consists of an educational kit comprising of uniforms, stationery and personal hygiene material. This directly reduces the hidden cost of educating girls and leads to parents being favourably inclined towards their daughters’ education in the long run.
• Academic Support: Establishment of Academic Support Centers in 150 villages, through which children of primary school would get 2/3 hours extra academic support before or after school hours, child wise learning tracking through SATT (introduction of a first-of-its-kind Student Academic Tool) in government schools of Chhattisgarh, quarterly assessment, incentives to best performing children, promotion of Bal Siksha panchayat in order to improve leadership skills.
• Social Support: Strengthening Village Education committees for their active involvement in school management process, conducting monthly meetings with the community, parents’ contact through home visit, etc.

Project for early detection of Cancer with Bhakti Vedanta Hospital, Mira Road

Started in 1998, Bhaktivedanta Hospital services over 1.5 million people in its catchment area within a radius of 10 kilometres. The hospital offers twin advantages of ultra-modern medicine together with the ancient knowledge of different alternative therapies to provide a holistic approach to patient care. This hospital is run by the Sri Chaitanya Welfare Trust with a motto of ‘Serving in Devotion’ followed in spirit by the 285 staff and the consulting specialties of the hospital.

As part of its efforts to further reach out to the needy communities, the Hospital has embarked on a new project. The project envisages supporting patients at the grass root level in the area of early detection and prevention of cancer. The area of focus is primarily those where services of cancer surgeons / oncology specialists are not available. Primary prevention, identification / treatment and education are seen as the most cost effective program, since it aims to reduce the incidence of cancer by risk factor modification (like anti tobacco campaign, etc.

The trust holds camps in remote areas of Maharashtra including their medical center. Through these camps the trust screens about 80–100 patients in a day at a particular camp. The trust is expecting to screen around 8000 patients through this initiative overall and the patients who need further investigation are provided treatment at the hospital

Under this programme, by December 2010, around 4000 patients have been screened and 630 patients were detected with cancer. Out of these 630 patients, the hospital has operated 109 patients thereby helping them to cure their cancer.

The Company has backed this novel initiative by rendering support to hold the camps at the various sites spread across rural Maharashtra, especially in the Thane district.

Nursing Assistant Training by Ramakrishna Mission

Ram Krishna Math, Chennai is one of the oldest centres of the Ramakrishna Mission. It is actively involved in advancing educational and rural development activities to marginalized sections of society. To support Rural Development, the Mission conducts Nursing Assistant training for girls from low-income rural background, mostly first generation learners and pre-dominantly from underprivileged agrarian and fishery communities.

GSK India is supporting the Nursing Assistant training program by way of donation to train 120 girls. The duration of this course is one year. At the end of the course, 120 girls from economically disadvantaged families will be equipped with skills to serve as nursing assistants and will be able to earn their own livelihood. The Mission has so far achieved 100% job placement for the graduates trained and has already trained 1320 girls beginning 2002 under this program.

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