Over 1700 participants from all walks of life – young and old, students, housewives, retired personnels and professionals, streamed onto the streets of Chandigarh to show their support for the "Aviva’s Walk for J&K Children", a walkathon sponsored by Aviva Life Insurance and conceptualized by Aurobindo Chaudhuri Memorial Great Indian Dream Foundation.
Over 1700 participants from all walks of life – young and old, students, housewives, retired personnels and professionals, streamed onto the streets of Chandigarh to show their support for the "Aviva’s Walk for J&K Children", a walkathon sponsored by Aviva Life Insurance and conceptualized by Aurobindo Chaudhuri Memorial Great Indian Dream Foundation. The walkathon was flagged off together by Shri Chandrashekhar, additional director general of police, Punjab, Satwinder Singh Dullet, Aviva Life Insurance and Arindam Paul, GIDF from Rose Garden at 9.30am in the morning. After covering a distance of about 4kms, the Walkathon culminated at the picturesque Sukhna Lake.
The rally saw all the colorful and enthusiastic children, youngsters and senior citizens walking hand-to-hand during Walkathon. Shri Chandrashekhar, additional director general of police, Punjab was also seen walking and singing "Kadam Kadam Badeya ja Khushi Ke Geet Gaye Ja Ye Zindagi Hai Kaum Ki Tu kaum Pe looteya Ja" and also emphasized on the rights of children for good living, health and education in his short speech at Sukhna Lake.
The first prize in the "Youngest Male Walker" category was awarded by Shri Chandrashekhar to Naman Gautam, and "Youngest Female Walker" to Rajni both from Jai Durga Deaf and Handicapped Children Welfare Centre. The prizes were also given away in various other categories like "Senior Citizen Walker", "Most Enthusiastic Walker", "Fastest Couple" and to the first five birds for early registration by the representatives of Aviva Life Insurance and GIDF.
The walkathon, the first of its kind in Chandigarh, was organised to raise awareness and support for the children in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) who have been affected by man-made and natural calamities in the valley.
According to professor Arindam Chaudhuri, founder – Aurobindo Chaudhuri Memorial Great Indian Dream Foundation: "Through this walkathon, we intended to spread a social message amongst the people regarding the large number of children in the state of Jammu & Kashmir who are leading a life of abject poverty and mass negligence. We should all join our hands to work towards improving their standard of living and try our level best to provide them with the bare necessities to make their life better."
Mr Vivek Khanna, director marketing, Aviva Life Insurance, said: “It is very encouraging to see so many people join the walkathon for a social cause. As a part of our corporate social responsibility program, Aviva takes up social and environmental causes to secure the future of the local communities. Our association with Great Indian Dream Foundation is another step towards our goal of helping secure the future of children, who are the future of our country.”
Recent natural and manmade calamities have adversely affected thousands of people living in Jammu & Kashmir and the worst victims have been the innocent children. Being a vulnerable area J&K has received less attention and assistance as compared to the other states. Children under difficult circumstances are the prime concern, and ACM GIDF aims to bridge this gap and reach out to the children who need care and protection, keeping in mind their potential to contribute towards the development of the nation.
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For further information, please contact:
Pooja Garg Khan
Aviva Life Insurance
E-mail: pooja.khan@avivaindia.com
Tel: 9811315510
Notes to editors:
About Aviva’s CSR program:
Aviva plc is the UK’s largest insurance Group and the world’s oldest insurance Group. Aviva Life Insurance is a joint venture between Dabur and Aviva. Aviva has always placed high value on good citizenship and believes that sound and demonstrable performance in relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and practices is a fundamental part of business success. A team of volunteers drives the CSR programme in India across the Aviva locations in the country. The Company has been working towards community development and environment conservation. Under the community initiative the focus is on the welfare and development of children and elderly. The environment focus is on water conservation initiatives, the need of the hour.
About Aurobindo Chaudhuri Memorial Great Indian Dream Foundation
Aurobindo Chaudhuri Memorial Great Indian Dream Foundation, is a national repute registered NGO.We have our head office in Delhi and other regional offices in Mumbai,Banglore and Chennai.ACM GIDF is working in the areas of health, education and environment. Currently we are operational in 12 states across India- Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, and West Bengal.
GIDF’s mission is to do everything possible in order to achieve The Great Indian Dream of making India an educated, healthy nation, free of poverty and its human indignities.
About Aviva
Aviva Life Insurance is a joint venture between Dabur and Aviva. Current paid up capital amounts to 320 Crores. Dabur are the 74% shareholder and Aviva the 26% shareholder. Aviva plc is the UK’s largest insurance Group and the world’s oldest insurance Group, with a history dating back to 1696. Today, it is the sixth largest insurer worldwide, with 30 million customers and Ł291 billion assets under management. Prior to nationalization, Aviva was the biggest of the foreign insurers operating in the Indian market.
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 1,537 crores. A professionally managed company it is the country’s leading producer of traditional healthcare products.
Aviva pioneered the concept of Bancassurance in India, and has leveraged its global expertise in this area successfully in India. Bancassurance has been contributing close to 65% of the total sales of Aviva India. Through its branches and its Bancassurance partner locations, Aviva products are available in 200 towns and cities across India.
Aviva’s products have been designed in a manner 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.