The Aviva Great Wall of Education, a book donation drive for the underprivileged children culminated into a book distribution ceremony today.
- An initiative by Aviva Street to School
- 252,000 books collected over five days and still counting
- Book donation drive for underprivileged children supported by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Save the Children and Vidyarambam
- Bookwall to go to Delhi following Chennai and Kolkata’s success.
The Aviva Great Wall of Education, a book donation drive for the underprivileged children culminated into a book distribution ceremony today. Vishal Gupta, director marketing Aviva India presented books to the representatives of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Save the Children India and Vidyarambam.
As part of Aviva’s Street to School program, the books from the wall will be used to move thousands of underprivileged children with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Save the Children and Vidyarambam closer towards education.
Speaking on the occasion, Vishal Gupta, director marketing, Aviva India, said: “At Aviva, we believe that ‘Education is Insurance’ and we are truly grateful to the people of Chennai for making the Aviva Great Wall of Education a big success. We have collected many books which will go towards building a brighter future for the underprivileged children by helping them into education. We appreciate the patronage of the people of Chennai towards this noble cause.”
Thomas Chandy, CEO, Save the Children, said: “It is heartwarming that Aviva has undertaken this book donation drive to benefit hundreds of children across India. And the people of Chennai have demonstrated with great enthusiasm that they care about the education of children from the most marginalized communities. With a historic Right to Education Act now in place, every child between six and 14 has the right to elementary education. Save the Children will endeavour to ensure that this Right becomes reality.”
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Rajani Devi, joint director, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, said: “We are happy to have partnered for the Aviva Great Wall of Education initiative. Our attempt at Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan is to provide an opportunity for improving human capabilities to all children, through provision of community-owned quality education in a mission mode. The books collected from this initiative will go towards setting up of ‘Learning Corners’ across select Government Schools in the districts. We thank the people of Chennai for their generous contribution.”
V Ranganathan, founder president, Vidyarambam Trust, said: “Vidyarambam has been bringing education to the doorstep of children in the rural areas for the past 8 years. A depressing scenario exists in many villages where a lot of children can’t even afford a book, let alone good education.
"This initiative by Aviva to provide access to books to such children is remarkable and we are very happy to be a part of this. We are determined to hand over books suitable to each child’s needs personally in 3,000 villages in six districts of Tamil Nadu. That way we can ensure that the books the people of Chennai have so caringly donated will not sleep away in libraries and public institutions. We are aiming to reach out to a minimum of three lakh children in these 3,000 villages.”
Himanshu Chakrawarti, COO, Landmark, said: “We are delighted to partner with Aviva for such a noble cause. Landmark has always been at the forefront for promoting education and building a community of well informed people by not only housing the widest range of titles but also hosting interactive events like interesting panel discussions, book launches book reading sessions and the landmark quiz amongst others. We are grateful that we have got this opportunity to make a contribution to the people and society who makes us.”
The five day donation drive starting 5 September was activated across Chennai through drop boxes placed at schools, Landmark stores, Aviva branches and corporates. Children from 200 schools actively donated their old text books, note books towards the cause. Many individuals have also come forward and donated books for the underprivileged children. Many who did not have relevant books to donate brought packets from the Landmark Book Store counter at the venue.
In Chennai, the "Aviva Great Wall of Education" is supported by Express Avenue as the venue partner, Landmark as the book store partner, and the students of School of Planning and Architecture (Delhi) have designed the wall.
The "Aviva Great Wall of Education" marks another step by Aviva, towards helping underprivileged children into education. Aviva Life Insurance has partnered with CRY (Child Rights and You) and Save the Children to facilitate education (including other related factors that could prevent a child from attending school) for over 50,000 children by 2012 under the Street to School initiative.
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About Aviva India
Aviva Life Insurance is a joint venture between Dabur Group and Aviva Group. Current paid up capital amounts to Rs 1888 crore. Dabur Group is the 74% shareholder while Aviva Group holds 26%. Aviva Group is a UK based insurance company and one of the world’s oldest insurance groups, with a history dating back to 1696.
Founded in 1884, Dabur is one of India’s oldest and largest groups of companies with the group’s consolidated annual sales in excess of Rs 2,396 crores. A professionally managed company, it is the country’s leading producer of traditional healthcare products.
Aviva’s products have been designed to provide customers flexibility, transparency and value for money. We have been among the first companies to introduce Unit Linked products in the market.
Aviva has a unique need based sales approach through the “Financial Health Check” (FHC). The FHC is a free service administered by our FPAs (Financial Planning Advisers) for a need-based analysis of the customer’s long-term savings and insurance needs. Depending on the life stage and earnings of the customer, the Financial Health Check assesses and recommends the right insurance product for them.
Aviva is also keen to reach out to the underprivileged that have not had access to insurance so far. Through its association with BASIX (a micro financial institution) and other NGOs, it has been able to cover lakhs of lives.