~Support My School will lend a hand to PM’s ‘Sanitation in every School’ pledge ~

Coca-Cola and World Vision dedicated the revitalized facilities Thimmareddy Govt. High School, Bangalore to the community members

Mr. Dana Bolden, ‎Director- PAC, Bottling Investment Group, The Coca-Cola Company, Mr. M Krishnappa ,Hon. Member of Legislative Assembly, South Bangalore Constituency & Mrs. Padmavathi, Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) South Range-Bangalore and D. Vijaykumar, Associate Director and Head Corporate Partnership World Vision dedicated the facilities

Support My School provides improved access to safe water and adequate sanitation, facilities for sports and recreation, library and teacher training facilities, a clean and green environment and a structure for rain water harvesting.

Bangalore, September 9 2014: Coca-Cola’s Support My School campaign, an initiative to build Happy, Healthy and Active Schools for students in rural and semi-urban areas, today dedicated revitalised water, sanitation and recreational facilities at the Thimmareddy Govt. High School, Bangalore. Mr. M Krishnappa ,Hon. Member of Legislative Assembly, South Bangalore Constituency & Mrs. Padmavathi, Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) South Range-Bangalore, along with Mr. Dana Bolden, ‎ Director- PAC, Bottling Investment Group (BIG), The Coca-Cola Company, dedicated the facilities to the principal, teachers and students of the school. Also present were representatives from Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd, the largest company owned bottling partners of The Coca-Cola Company in India, an esteemed panel of international women bloggers and representatives from World Vision.

Support My School has installed basic amenities such as functional and separate toilets for boys and girls, improved access to clean and safe drinking water, improved the overall infrastructure and environment of the Thimmareddy Govt. High School. World Vision also conducted WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Awareness programs for the thousand plus students in the school.

Speaking on the occasion, Dana Bolden, Director – PAC, Bottling Investment Group, The Coca-Cola Company said, “Support My School, since its inception, has grown from just being a campaign to a platform dedicated towards building holistic, happy and healthy schools for our children. We are proud to have created this movement for building facilities across rural and semi-urban areas to bring students back to where they belong – in schools. The campaign is gaining great momentum and we are very happy to partner with World Vision and all other Campaign partners and continue to strive to make a positive impact for students across India.”
A panel of women bloggers from across America and Canada were also present at the school to witness one of Coca-Cola India’s flagship sustainability initiatives in the country and see the impact the campaign has made on ground.

“World Vision has always been committed to providing a safe and hygienic environment for students across the country and the transformation of the current school systems in rural and semi-urban areas of India. Our journey with Support My School has been very exciting and we are proud to be part of this dedication today. We have worked with SMS on many clusters across India and we look forward to creating more of such life-impacting change for the children of the country” said D. Vijaykumar, Associate Director and Head Corporate Partnership World Vision.

Thanking the campaign for the revitalization work done in their school, Mrs. V. Vimla Principal, Thimmareddy Govt. High School said, “Thank you Support My School for changing the foundation of our school and boosting student and staff morale. I thank Coca-Cola and World Vision for their effort that has brought this transformation to our school.”

Coca-Cola India’s Support My School, a SanitationPLUS solution is implemented by grassroot NGOs. It recently celebrated completion of over 350 schools in India in 18 states across the country, impacting 125,000 children with an investment of over INR 20 crores so far. The funds invested in the facilities were raised from over 50 corporate donors and partners, with Coca-Cola contributing nearly 7 crores till date.

About Support My School Campaign

Coca-Cola India joined hands with NDTV to launch Support My School in association with UN-Habitat, Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), Pearson Foundation and Tata Teleservices. It undertakes the following core activities:

Provision of improved access to water
Appropriate sanitation facility for girls and boys
Improvement in the overall infrastructure and environment
Provision for sports and recreation facilities and
Recharging groundwater through rainwater harvesting

With such necessary amenities in place, schools are able to provide a cleaner and healthier environment more conducive to learning.

Education in rural India suffers from several issues where lack of sanitation is a key reason for absenteeism and dropouts amongst students. This is especially noted in young girls who are forced to quit as they enter adolescence due to a lack of clean and functional toilets. Children are also likely to fall sick more often without clean water to drink or to wash hands. Support My School endeavors to eliminate this basic concern by spreading the initiative across the country with the help of campaign partners to execute the same.

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. Over the last 20 years, ever since its re-entry in 1993, the company has been refreshing consumers with its beverage products – Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Thums Up, Fanta, Limca, Sprite, Maaza, Minute Maid range of juices, Georgia and Georgia gold range of hot and cold tea and coffee options, Kinley and Bonaqua packaged drinking water, Kinley Club Soda and BURN. The Company along with its bottling partners, through a strong network of over 2.2 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 system in India has registered 30 consecutive quarters of growth, 19 of them being double digit. It believes in the long term growth potential of the country and this system is committed to invest US$ 5 billion in its operations between 2012 and 2020. The system already provides direct employment to 25,000 people and indirect employment to 150,000 people.

The Coca-Cola system in India is contributing in its own small way to building sustainable communities and reducing its own environmental footprint. Some of our community development programs include the “Support My School” program – a movement for healthy, active, happy schools, the ‘Parivartan’ and ‘Pragati’ retailer training program, Career Development centers to train youth and make them employable, women empowerment program as a part of the global 5BY20 campaign, Unnati – a sustainable mango farming project etc.

About World Vision

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. We serve the world’s poor – regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. For more information, visit WorldVision.org/press or follow them on Twitter at @WorldVisionNews.