A learning-based initiative aimed at students is making waves in schools and colleges across India.
Going by the name of "Project Udaan", this initiative has benefitted around 1.5 lakh students covering 1,600 schools and colleges across India.
The major objective behind organising such trips is to encourage young minds to develop an interest in all sorts of enterprises and to encourage them to dream big in life. It is being used to empower communities, enhance life quality and instill hope for a better future.
Run by the Adani Foundation, "Udaan" has a presence in 13 states in India.
"Project Udaan" is helmed by Dr. Priti G Adani, wife of billionaire businessman Gautam Adani. The project is inspired by the latter's life changing story.
Under this project, a one-day familiarisation trip is organized to give students from 10th to 12th standards a chance to visit Adani Port, Adani Power and Adani Wilmar facilities at the Mundra site and gain insights into the large-scale business activities carried out there.
"My husband Mr. Gautam Adani and I feel that true success does not lie in mammoth expansion of business, money or power, but in how one uses that power to make lives better, to empower people and ensure that the benefits of a growing economy percolates down to those at the bottom of the pyramid," Priti Adani said about the group's philanthropic belief.
Education-oriented initiatives of the foundation have also been pivoted through ground work on schools. Adani's Vidya Mandirs - located in Ahmedabad and Bhadreshwar in Gujarat and Surguja in Chattisgarh - provide quality education, free of cost to meritorious children from the weaker section of the society.
Equipped with state-of-the art infrastructure, excellent faculty and facilities at par with the best schools in the country, these schools are providing education to more than 2,000 children. They are not just provided with free education here, but also free transport, books, uniform and three nutritious meals to ensure their holistic development.
Besides the Vidya Mandirs, there are five other schools under the aegis of Adani Foundation that provide subsidised education to children. These are the Adani Public Schools and Adani Vidyalayas, which are catering to the educational needs of some 3,000 students.
To further the cause, the foundation is collaborating with state governments to support more than 300 government schools in myriad ways, benefitting more than 100,000 students.
Apart from the education initiatives, the foundation has also made inroads into healthcare to provide development through its CSR activities.
The Adani Foundation works actively to transform the health and sanitation landscape among the marginalized communities and make available good health and nutrition across gender, income groups and geographies.
The foundation runs the GK General Hospital in Bhuj and offers free medical treatment to those belonging to the economically weaker sections of society. Being the only hospital in the largest district of the country, Kutch, it operates on a public-private partnership model. It is the one stop destination for the medical needs of the people in Kutch. The Foundation also runs GAIMS (Gujarat Adani Institute of Medical Sciences) with the objective of educating the youth of the country to qualify as doctors who will serve the communities and the nation with compassion.
The initiative also runs 15 mobile healthcare units in areas where the group operates to make quality healthcare available at the doorsteps of the remotest villages in the country, benefitting over 3,00,000 people annually.
Another tangent of work from the foundation is a community based initiative, SuPoshan launched in 2016-17 is working towards alleviating malnutrition among children in the age group of 0-5 years and alleviating anemia among adolescent girls and woman.
Presently, the initiative is implemented in 276 villages across 8 states of India covering 86,305 households. Around 190 Sanginis (village health workers) are working for curative and preventive interventions, and have so far treated 417 severely malnourished and 691 moderately malnourished children.
The group's work and beliefs in philanthropy has had tremendous impact for the country's populace. Since its inception 21 years ago, the 300-strong team of the foundation has taken big strides towards empowering the vulnerable and marginalized, promising and delivering scalable and replicable solutions to address many pertinent problems of the country. The initiatives have made a difference to over 1 million people, 5 lakh families and 1,470 villages and towns in 13 states. All the while, the group silently touches lives and helps people usher in an era of capable leaders and a strong nation.
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