Coca-Cola India joins hands with American India Foundation to promote Cleanliness & Waste Management

Ludhiana, September 27, 2019: To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Coca-Cola India has joined ‘Swachhta Hi Seva’ campaign, an initiative of the Swachh Bharat Mission, which aims to generate greater public participation and reinforce the concept of “cleanliness as everyone’s business”.

Answering to the call-to-action of our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Coca-Cola India and its bottling partners, in partnership with American India Foundation have come together by initiating activities to promote ‘Swachhta Hi Seva’ in beneficiary schools across Punjab. This is also in line with the Company’s global vision of creating a World Without Waste. Schools will welcome enthusiastic young volunteers from Coca-Cola’s official volunteering arm, who will help make each activity an interactive learning session for children & teachers, facilitated by American India Foundation’s team. The main objective is to drive awareness on the importance of clean and hygienic surroundings, and promote effective waste management solutions.

As a part of the initiative, Coca-Cola India and American India Foundation held a wide array of activities in GHS, Ramgarh School in Ludhiana to sensitize students on the importance of cleanliness and waste management.

Following is a list of the activities that took place:

• Pledge making drives: Every headmaster & student took a pledge to create awareness of cleanliness, ensure proper segregation of waste & conduct shramdaam to create a clean country.
• Wall Painting: This activity will involve Swayam volunteers to create wall painting with messages on the theme of clean school, clean India.
• Awareness rally and NukadNatak: Volunteers from Coca-Cola and AIF visited schools and community to spread awareness about the importance of cleanliness.
• School Community Cleaning: This activity will involve Swayam Volunteers, school children, community to collect PETT and Plastic waste and hand it over to a recycler.

  On the engagement, Mathew Joseph, Country Director, American India Foundation said, “AIF’s Digital Equalizer program works in under-resourced government schools across the country, sensitizing young students to the importance of clean and hygienic surroundings. The ‘Swachhta Hi Seva' campaign is a great initiative to spread the message of cleanliness and hygiene amongst school children and public, driven by volunteers through employee engagement activities.”

  Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Ishteyaque Amjad, Vice-President, Public Affairs, Communications & Sustainability, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, said, “Cleanliness is a quintessential form of discipline that one should never fail to follow in life. Considering the waste scenario in India, it is more important than ever to encourage cleanliness and waste management as a part of a healthy lifestyle. In alignment with the same, the Coca-Cola Company has a larger goal of creating a ‘World Without Waste’. Our recent engagement towards launching Asia’s largest packaging waste management venture is in response to the growing concerns around waste disposal. We at Coca-Cola India feel privileged to help make ‘Swachhta Hi Seva’ a success and urge every person to play a significant role in creating a cleaner, greener and litter-free India.”

   This initiative will not only catalyze a positive change at the grass-root level but will also help children become the ambassadors of inducing and developing a waste-free ecosystem.

The American India Foundation is committed to catalyzing social and economic change in India, and building a lasting bridge between the United States and India through high-impact interventions in education, livelihoods, public health, and leadership development. Working closely with local communities, AIF partners with NGOs to develop and test innovative solutions and with governments to create and scale sustainable impact. AIF’s programming seeks to achieve gender equity through developing inclusive models that focus on and empower girls and women. Founded in 2001 at the initiative of President Bill Clinton following a suggestion from Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee, AIF has impacted the lives of 5.6 million of India’s poor. With offices in New York and California, twelve chapters across the U.S., and India operations headquartered in New Delhi, AIF is transforming lives across 24 states of India while addressing these issues on a regional, country, and international scale. In 2019, AIF has received the highest ratings from leading independent rating agencies, Charity Navigator and GuideStar. Learn more at www.AIF.org

Coca-Cola in India and South West Asia is one of the region’s leading beverage companies. Headquartered in Gurgaon, the Business Unit manages the businesses in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan. It offers a range of healthy, safe, high quality, refreshing beverage options to consumers. Since its re-entry in 1993, the company has been refreshing consumers with its beverage products - Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, Diet Coke, Thums Up, Thums Up Charged, Fanta, Fanta Green Mango, Limca, Sprite, Sprite Zero, Maaza, VIO flavored milk ‘Almond Delight’ and ‘Kesar Delight’, Minute Maid range of juices, FUZE tea, Georgia and Georgia gold range of hot and cold tea and coffee options, Aquarius, Schweppes, SmartWater, Kinley and Bonaqua packaged drinking water and Kinley Club Soda. The Company along with its owned bottling operation and other bottling partners, through a strong network of over 2.6 million retail outlets, touches the lives of millions of consumers, at a rate of more than 500 servings per second. Its brands are some of the most preferred and most sold beverages in the country – Thums Up and Sprite – being the top two selling sparkling beverages. 

The Coca-Cola India system provides direct employment to 25,000 people and indirect employment to more than 150,000 people. The Coca-Cola system in India is contributing in its own small way to building sustainable communities through community initiatives like Support My School, VEER, Parivartan and Unnati and by reducing its own environmental footprint. For further information on the company's India operations and its products, please visit: www.coca-colaindia.com and www.hindustancoca-cola.com. 

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