Announces sustainable community development projects together with Hand in Hand India and World Vision India in the area of livelihood generation and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)

Total 389,000 USD to be invested in the revitalization of ICDS centres and imparting livelihood skills to more than 2000 community members across 39 villages

Chennai/Kancheepuram, May 17, 2017: To reassure its commitment of building sustainable communities, Coca-Cola today, together with Hand in Hand India and World Vision India announced the commencement of community development programs in 39 villages of Tamil Nadu. The projects commissioned under the initiative are aimed at imparting livelihood skills to over 2,000 community members and revamping the infrastructure of 32 Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) centres in the communities of Saidapet, Kannagi Nagar and Perumbakkam. A grant amount of US$ 389,000 has been sanctioned towards this initiative by Coca-Cola.

The announcement was made in the presence of Mr. V.Jayakumar, Project Director, DRDA , Mrs G Sarguna, ICDS PO for Kancheepuram District; Mr. Hebsur Rahman, LDM Kancheepuram District , Mr. Cherian Thomas, CEO and National Director, World Vision India and Dr N. Jeyaseelan, Group CEO, Hand in Hand India, Mr. Ishteyaque Amjad, Vice President, Public Affairs and Communication, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia and Mr. Umesh Malik, Vice President Public Affairs & Communications, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd.

On the occasion, Mr. Cherian Thomas, CEO and National Director, World Vision India, said “Sanitation being an integral part of the nutrition value chain, it is imperative to have WASH (Water, Hygiene and Sanitation) infrastructure in schools and Anganwadi centres (ICDS) for children to raise their health and nutritional level. With the grant from Coca-Cola and their commitment towards supporting local communities, we will be able to revamp and build more ICDS centres which will benefit our children in the poorest of areas in Tamil Nadu.”

The objective of revitalizing Anganwadi centres is also to support government’s welfare programme in providing good infrastructure and a child friendly environment for children less than 6 years of age. These ICDS centres will help in addressing the issues of malnutrition and pave way for a healthy childhood.

Further elaborating on the community development project, Dr N. Jeyaseelan, Group CEO, Hand in Hand India, said, “We believe that an empowered individual can empower the entire community and can contribute extensively to socio-economic development of a nation. We have been working towards enabling sustainable community development in the state of Tamil Nadu and Coca-Cola’s support has further inspired and supported us in our endeavors to achieve this.”

Hand in Hand India, will focus on imparting skill trainings in farm and non-farm based activities in the 39 villages of Thiruvallur and Kanchipuram districts of Tamil Nadu. The skill trainings will be provided in the areas of Agriculture, Poultry, Milch animal rearing, Piggery, Tailoring, Handicrafts, Car driving, Artificial Jewelry making, Mobile phone servicing, Computer hardware repair and maintenance, two wheeler and four wheeler mechanic etc.

Mr. Ishteyaque Amjad, Vice President, Public Affairs and Communication, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia, said, “Sustainable development remains at the heart of everything Coca-Cola does. In our endeavor to build more thriving and sustainable communities we have been focusing on ensuring better quality of life to community members, imparting skills to create a pool of employable skilled resource for a socio-economic growth. We are happy to announce the commencement of these community development projects in the state of Tamil Nadu and will continue to extend our support in all possible ways.”

Over the years, the company has helped in creating sustainable and thriving communities in the state of Tamil Nadu.  The company has adopted eight villages in the state and provided better access to drinking water, health and sanitation, education and livelihood opportunities.

Additionally, The company is on its way to improve livelihood of several farmers in the country through its project ‘Unnati’. The project aims to harness the higher productivity potential of mango and orange farms, allowing owners of small-sized farms to increase crop yields by up to three times. The project is engaging with farmers at a large scale by providing subsidized plants, drip irrigation equipment and training on Ultra High Density Plantation, benefitting more than 22,500 farmers. In Tamil Nadu alone, Project Unnati is targeting to impact about 5,000 farmers holding 10,000 acres land for enhancing Mango productivity
 

About Coca-Cola India

Coca-Cola India is one of the country’s leading beverage companies, offering 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, Fanta, Fanta Green Mango, Limca, Sprite, Sprite Zero, Maaza, VIO flavoured milk ‘Almond Delight’ and ‘Kesar Delight’, Minute Maid range of juices, FUZE Iced tea, Georgia and Georgia gold range of hot and cold tea and coffee options, Schweppes, Kinley and Bonaqua packaged drinking water and Kinley Club Soda. The Company along with its 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. Follow us on twitter at twitter.com/CocaCola_Ind, or on facebook.

About World Vision India

World Vision India is a grassroots humanitarian organisation that serves all people regardless of religion, caste, race, ethnicity or gender. Through development, relief and advocacy, we strive/seek to create

lasting change in the lives of children, their families and communities living in contexts of poverty and injustice. World Vision works in nearly 100 countries worldwide, and we have been in India since 1962. Today we work in over 6200 urban, rural and tribal communities spread over 191 districts across 26 states impacting the lives of 26 lakh children.

For more information, go to: https://www.worldvision.in/

About Hand in Hand India

Hand in Hand India is a public charitable trust that works to alleviate poverty through a unique integrated community development approach. Registered in 2002, the Organization implements projects in areas of women empowerment, microfinance, job creation, Child labour elimination, education, health, environment, skill building, IT & Governance. Hand in Hand India works in 10 States in India.

Hand in Hand India’s Job Creation Model has been replicated in Afghanistan, South Africa, Kenya, Brazil, Sri Lanka and in Cambodia. The Hand in Hand India team has drawn experts from various fields like agriculture, rural development, microfinance, education, business management, and research professionals. Our success lies in the simple fact that we have evolved our programmes according to the needs of the community, creating awareness among them and with their active participation. The partnership model of Government- NGO – Corporate – Community has been a win-win situation for all.