New Delhi, January 4, 2017 – Amway Opportunity Foundation (AOF), the CSR arm of Amway India, has partnered with All India Confederation of the Blind (AICB) to set up Braille libraries for the visually impaired students across 10 key cities including Delhi, Ludhiana, Ranchi, Raipur, Jaipur, Varanasi, Karvi (Chhitrakoot), Patna, Indore & Faridabad. This was announced at the birth anniversary celebrations of Louis Braille in New Delhi today. Sh. Krishan Pal Gurjar, Hon’ble Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment and Sh. Ashwini Kr. Choubey, Member of Parliament jointly unveiled the Braille edition of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru’s autobiography in the presence of Sh. AK Mittal, President, AICB and Sh. JL Kaul, Secretary General, AICB and Sh. GS Cheema, Sr. Vice President – North & East, Amway India.
The libraries will offer Braille versions of a variety of books & journals ranging from academic books, fiction, self-help, general knowledge etc for the benefit of more than 2,000 visually impaired students who otherwise have limited access to books.
Elaborating on the initiative, GS Cheema, Sr. Vice President - North & East, Amway India, said, “We have been working tirelessly towards the welfare of the visually impaired with a firm belief that education and knowledge is the key to the future that create opportunities transcending physical limitations. A Braille library is a key component of that strategy. We are targeting to open as many 31 braille libraries over the next 2-3 months. We are delighted to have partnered with AICB who are helping us set up these Braille libraries.”
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. J.L. Kaul, Secretary General, AICB, said, “I am extremely happy that Amway Opportunity Foundation has taken up the Library project at a big scale, which is very much essential for the visually impaired community and I hope that these libraries will bring more joy, a little more awareness and a whole lot more opportunity for the visually impaired.”
Picture 1: GS Cheema, Sr. Vice President - North & East, Amway India and Sh. Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment - releasing Braille version of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru's autobiography on the occasion of 208th Birth anniversary of Louis Braille
Picture 2: GS Cheema, Sr. Vice President - North & East, Amway India - along with Sh. Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment and Sh. Ashwini Kr. Choubey, Member of Parliament - distributing prizes to visually impaired children on the occasion of 208th Birth anniversary of Louis Braille
Amway under the National Project for the Visually Impaired, has taken 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.
Amway has also set-up 2 audio libraries in Indore and Madurai; launched a travel and tourism course in Kolkata; set-up a BPO in Madurai, set-up a Braille Library in Bangalore; 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.
Amway India’s 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 on 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 Opportunity Foundation is a registered NGO and a Corporate Social Responsibility arm of Amway India.
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 Opportunity Foundation launched a village health program targeted at 26 villages in the Dindigul district, to provide quality healthcare to the underprivileged. A total of 144 health check-up camps (12 camps in a month) are being conducted within a span of 12 months. The treatment includes general health check-up, select pathological tests and medicines at zero cost to the beneficiaries.
As a key focus area, AOF has taken various initiatives to support the cause of visually impaired. AOF also supports underprivileged children in education, health and hygiene under a project titled ‘Sunrise’. Under this project, AOF currently supports more than 15 NGOs across the country.