When the floods devastated Chennai in December 2015, it had literally
shut down the source of income for many household. The effect was felt
throughout Chennai as it did not spare even a single area. Lot
of individuals and companies involved themselves towards the upliftment of the
affected class.
SMILE Foundation
was one of the organisation that took the initiative to bring back the lost
hope among the families. Though the organisation is working across various
geographical areas, this time they established training centres in Mammandur,
Salavakkam, AP Chatiram & Nelvoy road. Some 235 deserving women candidates
from across 12 villages were identified and were given stitching training under
Project Thiramai.
As a part of the project, an event was organized on 10th May
2017 where all these 235 women were given certificates and sewing machines to
self sustain and support themselves. The event was attended by dignitaries from
the State Government. The members who were present in the event were:
Mr M C Sampath -
Minister for Industries, Govt of Tamilnadu
Mr P Thangamani -
Minster for Electricity, Excise and Prohibition, Govt of Tamilnadu
Mr Sanjeev Dham -
COO, SMILE Foundation
Ms Poonam Kaul - Vice
President-CSR, Pepsico India
The event saw the participation of all the 235 women being
present at the venue with great
enthusiasm.4
Speaking about the initiatives, Mr Sanjeev Dham-COO, SMILE foundation thanked Pepsico for their
support in supporting the initiative which saw how the women whose families
were affected by floods and other natural disaster willingly came up to take
part in the drive thereby enhancing their capabilities to stand up on their own
legs. He further added that the initiative was unique and saw the participation
from physically challenged women too. Through Project Thiramai, training has
been given to women across the four training centres and n successful
completion, certificates and sewing machines were given to the candidates.
Poonam Kaul, Vice
Preisdent - CSR, Pepsico India noted that the company feels proud in
supporting such an initiative which has seen the rise of women from
economically weaker section. Pepsico has joined with SMILE foundation to
support these women across Kancheepuram district from various villages and by
making women learn stitching, it would enable them to join the garment factory
companies which are in abundance in the area. The decision was taken after
considering the employment opportunities post training which has helped
hundreds and thousands of families. The foundation has been doing three
initiatives namely Smile-on-Wheels healthcare vans, School Cleanliness and
Project Thirami.
Under Project Thiramai, the women not only gets trained to
stitch but also were given training to repair the and maintain the sewing
machine themselves. The training period is for 3 months. Along with the
training, these candidates were also taught about Yoga, Meditation and also
given awareness training on obesity and nutrition which would help in
eradicating the poverty.
Pepsico India
has been taking part in the growth of Tamilnadu since 1989 which has 5
manufacturing plants across the State. Through Production, Sales and
Distribution it supports 15,000 families and for the better yield of food
grains, the company has already joined hands with more than 400 farmers and
working with them. By doing this, the company has helped them save more than
30% of water and the highlight to this is the savings of 1.5 billion litres of
water that has been saved in the year 2015 alone by these initiatives.
When the floods devastated Chennai in 2015, Pepsico had
deployed its Sales unit and those who are employed in their production unit to
take part in the rescue operations. The company has also supplied more than 1.4 litres of Aquafina purified water along with 38,000 kilos of Quaker oats.
Minsters M C Sampath and
P Thangamani spoke about the
initiatives wherein they lauded the
company and the foundation for doing the great work. They said they look
forward to their contribution and continued support enriching the lives of many
families.
The event concluded with the distribution of sewing machines
to all the 235 women who has completed their training.
Team of newspatrolling.com personally
attended the event and the post is in
collaboration with PepsiCo India
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