Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a major leadership function for any organization, small or large. While the major organizations have the facilities and logistic support to discharge such responsibilities themselves, HYSEA understand that our members from the SME sector, though willing to contribute their might, may not always have the support mechanism to do such activities. We have therefore constituted a CSR forum under the leadership of Mr.V.Rajanna, General Manager - AP Region, TCS. We invite all our members to join hands with HYSEA to make the CSR Forum a great success.

As a first initiative, the CSR forum would like to arrange Blood donation camps with the help of Red Cross and other similar accredited Govt agencies once a week during Jan’ 08 at different member locations for the benefit of all. We solicit suggestions from our members for various CSR activities which HYSEA could undertake during the year 2008 and beyond.

We are aware that many of our members are actively involved in various CSR initiatives at the organization level. We request members to share such details with us for the benefit of all our members. Some of the reports received from members are given below:

HYDERABAD: It was a dream come true for the 100 odd incumbents of Parents Association for Welfare of the Mentally Handicapped (PAWMENCAP) on the occasion of children’s day. A dream to fly in the sky and watch Hyderabad while traveling in an aircraft. It was an adventurous and exciting day for the mentally challenged persons to traverse in the “Flight of Fantasy Boeing 737-800 Aircraft” in a 45-minute journey that circled around the city of minarets. The flight was operated free of cost by Jet Airways in collaboration with TCS Hyderabad.

Ever since the children arrived at the Begumpet Airport in the afternoon, they were anxious to board the flight at the earliest.

The moment they got into the aircraft, they looked at the interiors with amazement. As soon as the flight began to rev up at around 6 p.m., all the mentally challenged persons aged between six and 35 screamed in joy and clapped . “I watched aeroplanes far away in the sky and only in the videos till yesterday. But I am travelling in a plane today and it still feels like a fantasy,” said Hasnyne Alam, an 18-year-old mentally challenged youngster of PAWMENCAP.

The objective behind operating the flight was to make them happy and feel privileged, said Mrs. Mala Ramadorai, Founder and Head of Maitree. ( Maitree is the organization within TCS that motivates Assocaite Engagment and Corporate Sustainability initiatives). Special arrangements were made for the trip. The management of Jet Airways was planning the trip since two weeks and it removed 10 seats from the 154-seat capacity of the aircraft to provide enough leg room for the kids. Earlier in the day, some kids from PAWMENCAP showcased their dancing skills to the visitors. They sure were on cloud nine!

Mr V Rajanna Regional Head of TCS Hyderabad said, “This is a moment that these kids will never ever forget in their lifetime”. By making their dream come true, TCS has enabled a noble cause and it is a reflection of the corporate sustainability initiative that is being followed by the Tata family he added.

As a strong coherent team, Wipro HYD always felt the need of responsibility towards the society in general and the underprivileged in particular. This deep rooted urge took shape in the form of couple of events in raising the funds and cheering up the inmates of an orphanage and old age homes in HYD.

SnS team took this initiative forward under the umbrella of Wipro cares program. A band of 10 volunteers were drawn up for these activities.

Volunteers identified three different homes: Orphanage at Kondapur, Old age homes at Miyapur and Moosapet, as beneficiaries to start with.

Festive week of Diwali has been identified and internal mail circulated among a team of 100. In less than a day a sum of Rs 10K collected. Crackers, sweets, text books, groceries and notebooks were bought for distribution by volunteers.

A day before Diwali the volunteers dispersed with the material supplies. At both Kondapur and Moosapet chocolates and crackers were distributed to orphan kids. The groceries and books were given to the caretakers. The text books collected earlier by the Wipro cares were also given .The volunteers spent couple of hours with all the children there and it was a real heart touching moment to see those little ones craving for love. It was a similar experience at Miyapur as well when this gesture of ours brought a smile on the faces of all the old women and men.

At Moosapet, small kids were making artistic Diyas and Candle stands exclusively for Diwali to raise the funds for the home and Volunteers thought of marketing them inside Wipro and soon a stall was put up in Manikonda Campus. The stall was a complete sell out in an hour and added Rs 10K to home funds.

It was a heart fulfilling experience for the team and not only helped the social cause but improved the team bonding and shared sensibilities.

Convergys Hyderabad Center organized Kid’s Day Out - A special Children’s Day Gala for the tiny tots of Convergys family.

IT was a day of fun, games and feasting for more than 150 children who were invited to participate in this celebration to mark the Indian Children's Day.

The campus was transformed into a fairyland featuring games, a magic show, fancy costumes, special performances and painting competition. Tattoo artists, face painters, prizes, and gifts added to the excitement.

The photos below were taken at the Children's Day celebration at the Convergys facility in Hyderabad.

In addition to the celebration on the Convergys campus, employees participated in two initiatives in support of the Convergys value of corporate citizenship. One group of employees celebrated Children’s Day with the underprivileged children of Project 511 school, and another group spent time with children at the MNJ Cancer Hospital. All the children enjoyed a small entertainment program and gifts.

Kaushik Gupta, Convergys HR Director in Hyderabad, had the following commment about the visit to the hospital: "It was so very humbling to meet these kids who were undergoing painful chemotherapy but still had the ability to laugh. It felt nice that we were able to put smiles back, albeit for a few hours, on the faces of these wonderful kids and their parents (who are often the ones to psychologically suffer the trauma much more)."

Broadridge Financial Solutions (India) Private Limited is funding Rs. 1.2 Crore over a three year period for the development of a Bridge Camp to be operated by the MV Foundation. M V Foundation is a not-for-profit organization (run by the Magsaysay Award winner, Dr. Shantha Sinha, in existence since 1981) which is working towards Child Labor Eradication.

MVF has developed a unique and powerful approach to deal with the twin problems of child labor and illiteracy by getting children to enroll in Residential Bridge Camps (RBC). RBC provides a learning platform for children who have been involved in bonded / non-bonded labor activities to train / groom them to enroll into formal schools.

Over the past 15 years the RBC program has expanded to over 500 villages and nearly 150,000 children have enrolled and been retained in schools, more than 4,000 bonded laborers have been released.

MVF with support from Broadridge is now looking to extend this concept to its First Ever Urban Residential Bridge Camp at Chandrayanagutta, Hyderabad. The camp aims at transforming the lives of deserving children. Apart from the financial or material assistance, this partnership with the MVF will provide an opportununity for Broadridge associates and their families to make a difference.