TATA VOLUNTEERING WEEK 5 Update No. 12
 
  Senior leadership mentor IIT Bombay students Tata Motors   |  Mumbai
 
This TVW has witnessed quite a flurry of exciting activities. Ranging from cleanliness drives, coral reef conservation, awareness camps, interactions, games and more recently –mentoring sessions by senior leadership. On the 18th of March, Group Chairman Mr. Cyrus Mistry volunteered his time by engaging in a mentoring interaction with 17 IIT Bombay students. Coming from the IITB Racing Team, Tinkerers Lab and the Financial Aid Program (FAP), the students were visibly excited to interact with the Chairman and enthusiastically participated in the free-wheeling Q&A at the end.
 
Dr. Mukund Rajan, Brand Custodian and Chief Ethics Officer of the Tata group also volunteered his time mentoring these IITB students.
 
Tata Motors, a supporter of IITB’s Financial Aid Program and Racing Team, as a part of its CSR initiatives, hosted this volunteering opportunity along with Tata Sustainability Group (TSG) and IITB Alumni Association (IITBAA). The CEO- IITBAA who also leads the FAP expressed her gratitude to the Chairman and Dr. Rajan for taking the time to interact with the students – “Such opportunities”, she said, “would not only widen students’ horizons but also go a long way in deepening the organizational ties between the Tata Group and IITB.”
 
  Helping a flood affected community Tata Sustainability Group  |  Mumbai
 
Volunteering is not just about touching the lives of people in the communities around us, it’s also about the people who volunteer. It’s important to step outside the comfort zone, put yourself in another’s shoes and really get your hands dirty – it’s one of the more life changing things about volunteering to aid communities that need the support. It’s also a personalized gesture that will be remembered forever. This TVW5, the employees of Tata Sustainability Group decided to do exactly that – step out of the comfort zone and into the shoes of members of a flood affected community in a slum in Chennai. The team worked on aiding the reconstruction of a community common area that was in dire need of renovation and clearing up the route to the community water place. “It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before, it’s easy for us to sit in offices and work, but this kind of hard manual labour has been an eye-opener. I’m glad I got an opportunity to serve”, says an eager new joinee in the team.
 
  Exposure visit for the fishermen CGPL  |  Gujarat
 
The volunteers of Coastal Gujarat Power Limited organized an exposure visit for the small fishermen to learn more about their existing livelihood. They were taken to the Fisheries Research Institute. The entire trip was not only educational but also filled with entertainment. They asked a lot of questions to the Researchers and Scientists. It was also a memorable trip with their fishermen friends.
 
  Cleanliness drive and visit to an old age home Ginger Hotels  |  Bangalore
 
A group of 14 volunteers participated in cleaning the SAP Labs foot path area and Pond. These foot paths are widely used by hundreds of employees who work in Whitefield EPIP zone daily. Post the cleaning activity, a team of 07 volunteers visited Cheshire Old Age home located at Whitefield. This is a refuge for elderly women who are cared for and live in dignity during their sunset years. The home looks after 20 disabled / elderly women. The volunteers contributed lunch for all residents along with a special dessert made by the Head Chef.
 
  Cleaning a Children’s home Ginger Hotels  |  Chennai
 
The Ginger Hotel volunteers cleaned the third floor of Seva Samajam Children’s Home. This was followed by pest control and repair of electrical equipment. To involve the children, the volunteers also conducted a drawing competition for them and distributed gifts to the winners.
 
  Blood donation drive Ginger Hotels  |  Manesar
 
Ginger Hotel volunteers organized a Blood Donation drive at Rockland Hospital, Manesar. Senior Executives and employees took part in the activity.
 
  Cleanliness drive Ginger Hotels  |  Mysore
 
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan cleanliness campaign was conducted by the Staff and Vendor/ Partners of Ginger Hotel Mysore on the Vasanth Mahal Road walking pavements. This pavement had plenty of plastic, bottles and cigarette packets thrown on the pavements. The staff collected all those things from the road side and cleaned up the pavements. All employees enjoyed the activity.
 
  Cleaning public spaces Ginger Hotels  |  Pune
 
Team Ginger Pune-Wakad volunteers cleaned a front service road and Bhumkar chowk bus stop under the focus area of “Hygiene & Cleanliness”. After 2 hours of continuous cleaning, the place looked much better than earlier. The volunteers also pledged to keep it clean in future too.
 
  Blood donation drive Ginger Hotels  |  Pune
 
Team Ginger Pune-Wakad in association with PSI Blood Bank organized a blood donation drive. 23 associates from the hotel donated blood. Everyone felt proud as “Blood Donation is service to Humankind.
 
  Cleanliness drive Ginger Hotels  |  Tirupur
 
Ginger hotel Tirupur team undertook a cleanliness drive in a public park. Associates were also given handy tips to keep their surroundings clean. The Hotel Manager, Finance Manager, along with the associates were actively involved in the cleanliness drive. They enthusiastically took up brooms and garbage bags to clean up the dirty area of the Park.
 
  Collect Coconut Shells and Save Trees Indian Hotels  |  Coimbatore
 
Varanasi uses 300 tonne of wood every day to burn dead bodies. The wood takes four hours to turn into ashes. But the Coconut shell powder reduces this process to one hour and around 250 tonne of wood can be saved. The coconut shells collected by us have been converted to powder and sent to Varanasi by us every Saturday.
 
We believe “Nature is our home & not the place to visit“ and therefore partnered with Mr. Nithyandham, a social worker from Dhiyana Social Service, Coimbatore. They introduced us to this new concept of collecting the coconut shells from Hotel associates, their homes and vendors to support for this wonderful cause.
 
  Industrial visit Indian Hotels  |  Jaipur
 
Students of SHM college of Hotel Management, Bhubaneswar, came to Jaipur for their industrial visit. All the students were given a detailed tour of the hotel premises. They saw the rooms and restaurants. This was followed by a session by the Learning and Development team on industry practices. All the students and their faculties were extremely delighted with the warm hospitality of Taj and cherished the learning experience.
 
  Numeracy training for the children Natsteel  |  Singapore
 
12 volunteers from Natsteel (including Technical, Meltshop, Merchant Bar Mill and NatSteel Academy) visited the class senior 1P of Fernvale Gardens School. They brought the kids on a mini excursion to a nearby food court to practice numeracy skills and have their lunch. After a hearty meal, the kids were energized and the volunteers had a tough time chasing them around. It was a fun afternoon for the children and volunteers.
 
  Vegetable cultivation session for farmers Rallis India   |  Lote
 
Seven volunteers of Rallis India Lote Unit and the SRI Technique consultant arranged a Vegetable Cultivation awareness session for the farmers of Brahminwadi, Songaon. They were given information on SRI technique, vegetable cultivation, soil preparation and organic manure. 30 farmers participated in the session.
 
  Reduce, Reuse & Recycle Tata Capital   |  Chennai
 
Tata Capital Chennai team of 45 volunteers came up with ideas to create useful products by using old water bottles and newspapers. Volunteers made pen stands using old water bottles and photo frames using the newspaper. The volunteers also created awareness on reduce, reuse and recycle through a street play.
 
  Reduce, Reuse & Recycle Tata Capital   |  Hyderabad
 
95 volunteers made 230 paper-pens from old newspapers. They used sparkling cello tape in different designs and some painted them. All the pens were distributed to the children of J.M Orphan Home. The volunteers thoroughly enjoyed making paper pens.
 
  Save Our Sparrows Campaign Tata Chemicals   |  Mithapur
 
Save Our Sparrows Campaign was launched in Mithapur on 20th March '16, which is the World Sparrow Day. The campaign started with a pledge to save sparrows and the biodiversity of Mithapur. One thousand nest boxes for sparrows were arranged and a door to door survey was initiated to identify sparrow nesting and their territories in Mithapur township. The aim of the campaign was to create awareness regarding the dwindling sparrow population in Mithapur and encourage people to take-up action for conservation of sparrows as also other birds like the Bulbuls, Taylorbird, Purple sunbird, Crimson-breasted barbet etc. which have been nesting here. Employees, family members and retired employees participated enthusiastically in the campaign. These activities shall continue over the coming days and are designed to help create a database on nesting of different bird species at Mithapur.
 
  Liter of Light Tata Communications  |  Bangalore
 
In support of the theme of ‘Nurture Nature’, 30 enthusiastic volunteers worked in small teams to create 10 solar home lights using plastic bottles, PVC pipes, solar panels, lithium ion phosphate batteries and circuits. The volunteers were given orientation on energy poverty and guided to make the light by the team from an NGO Aroha who lead the ‘Liter of Light’ programme in India. The engagement was exciting and saw active participation from other Tata group companies like TCS and Titan and support staff from Tata Communications.
 
  Street play on Reduce, reuse and recycle Tata Communications  |  Chennai
 
On the theme of ‘Nurture Nature’ a street play was conducted in Tata communication old with an objective to create awareness on ‘Reduce-Reuse & Recycle ( The 3Rs). Tata communications volunteers participated in the creative photo frame making activity, along with Siragu Montessori School children. The school provides quality education and rehabilitation to children begging on the streets and pavements of parts in and around Chennai. Volunteers used their imagination and made photo frames of different shapes and size and were excited to use colors and other decorative items to make the photo frame looks attractive. A happy set of volunteers decided to keep these photo frames on their desks to motivate other employees.
 
  Awareness on Waste Management and Paper Bag Making Tata Communications  |  Mumbai
 
39 Volunteers participated in the volunteering activity conducted by Stree Mukti Sangathan and Green Yatra. Volunteers learnt how to recycle their domestic waste to make manure for their plants from Stree Mukti Sangathan and Green Yatra helped the volunteers to recycle paper by making paper bags. The enthusiastic volunteers made 31 paper bags which will be donated to a SHG Group. Volunteers from Voltas and Tata Sons also joined the volunteering activity.
 
  Snake-Ladder game making Tata Communications  |  Pune
 
42 volunteers from Tata Communication took part in making card board games and made 19 Snake & Ladder board games. The board games were made on the theme of- Reduce, Reuse & Recycle, where the volunteers incorporated different messages on Nurture Nature. The board games will be distributed among the Children of Bopkhel School by the Volunteers on 19th March.
 
  Cleanliness drive Tata Steel   |  Jamshedpur
 
A cleanliness drive was organised at the TAYO Colony, Mankadia village and JDC in one of the residential areas at ECC Flats Kadma where the employees of TGS, FAMD and the HR team cleaned the roads and nearby areas.
 
  Joy of giving Tata Steel   |  Jamshedpur
 
Employees of LPTG Department of Tata Steel visited Harisunderpur primary school and interacted with the tribal children. As part of joy of giving they distributed notebooks, pencils, pencil box and other stationery to all the children.
 
  Needs assessment Tata Steel   |  Jamshedpur
 
A need assessment of the PVTG village of Dhusra was undertaken by 8 employees of Lime Plant JDC. The team visited the village and interacted with the sabra population. They also distributed some sweets to all the residents.
 
  Visit to a school Tata Steel   |  Jamshedpur
 
The Blast Furnace team visited Primary School Haridakocha and interacted with the students and teacher of the school. They also listed the needs of the school and will adopt the school on a sustainable basis. Another visit to JEEVIKA - Centre for mentally disabled children was organised for the employees of Natural Resources Division. Bags and sweets distributed among the students. The volunteers also played holi with children.
 
  Art training and quiz competition Tata Steel   |  Jamshedpur
 
An Art training camp and a quiz competition was organised by volunteers for the youth of Bhalubasa Community Centre.
 
  Awareness session for children Tata Steel   |  Jamshedpur
 
A hands on training on safe food habits and washing hands before eating was carried out at Bhalubasha centre for the children of the bal vikas classes.
 
  Road safety rally Tata Steel   |  Jamshedpur
 
A rally on safe driving and road safety was taken out in the bustee area. Riders and drivers were explained the importance of safe driving.
 
  Improving sales of the local craftsmen Tata Steel   |  Jamshedpur
 
A session organised by the team of ITS for improving of Sales of Karigar Outlet which is run by Urban Services.
 
  Seed ball making activity Tata Technologies   |  Bangalore
 
Tata Technologies organized a Seed Ball making activity with the assistance of Rotary Club in Office Cafeteria. 65 employees volunteered and contributed their time to make 1100 balls in less than 5 hours which has been handed over to NGO. Seed ball is an unique and innovative way to grow plants/tree. It is a mixture of red soil (mud) and cow dung mixed with other bio compost. These soft balls are dried up and thrown near hills, lakes, ponds so that they can sprout and become plants and eventually grow as a tree. The success rate as informed by Rotary Club is around 60-70%.
 
  Road safety awareness Voltas   |  Dadra
 
30 Voltas volunteers of Dadra Plant, conducted an awareness session on Road Safety for tribal children at nearby Primary School, Dungra. The volunteers explained the dos and don’ts about road rules, single indication, zebra crossing & showed a short film on Road Safety. The volunteers arranged a Drawing Competition on the same subject. The session witnessed enthusiastic participation from the students and was very interactive.
 
  Setting up a library Voltas   |  Hyderabad
 
Voltas Hyderabad volunteers visited schools in three villages (Bommarasipalle , Ramireddypalle & Jagboinpalle) of Midjil Mandal, in the drought hit Mahabubnagar district. They met the teachers to understand the needs and priorities of the children to provide the required support. The three schools together have 172 students and the volunteers helped in starting up of libraries in two schools. Around 312 story books were procured from "Pratham Books" publication, a not-for-profit organisation at subsidized cost, for starting libraries in two schools.
 
In addition, the volunteers also contributed other stationery requirements including 438 Notebooks, 2 old desktop PC's, 4 hooplas and skipping ropes. Also Colouring/Drawing books, with full sets of pencil boxes, crayons/colour pencils were presented to all the children. The volunteers were overwhelmed seeing the joy on the children's faces.
 
  Visit to an orphanage Voltas   |  Kolkata
 
A group of volunteers from Voltas Kolkata visited “ASHIYANA”. It’s a Happy Home for the children in the age group of 2 years to 15 years. This home provides a better life to the orphaned children. The volunteers were greeted with smiling faces and the volunteers instantly mingled with the children and spent quality time interacting with these children, mostly below age group of three years. They also communicated with the caretaker to know the routine of these children. Prior to this visit, the volunteers had met the In Charge to identify the needs of these children and as requested by the institute, presented a Water purifier, Table Fans, Stationery items and Water bottles for the children's use. The children were thrilled to receive the gifts.
 
  *This update covers only some of the activities undertaken by companies.
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