Over 1600 participants from all walks of life – young and old, students, housewives, retired personnels and professionals, streamed onto the streets of Kolkata to show their support for ‘Aviva’s Walk for less privileged children’, a walkathon sponsored by Aviva Life Insurance and conceptualized by Aurobindo Chaudhuri Memorial Great Indian Dream Foundation.
- Aurobindo Chaudhuri Memorial Great Indian Dream Foundation and Aviva Life Insurance organized the Walkathon
- All proceeds from this initiative will go towards funding the education programme by GIDF for underprivileged children in India
Over 1600 participants from all walks of life – young and old, students, housewives, retired personnels and professionals, streamed onto the streets of Kolkata to show their support for ‘Aviva’s Walk for less privileged children’, a walkathon sponsored by Aviva Life Insurance and conceptualized by Aurobindo Chaudhuri Memorial Great Indian Dream Foundation.
The 5km long walkathon was flagged off together by Mr PK Banerjee, sports personality; Mr Amrik Singh Arora, singer; John Mayne, Aviva Life Insurance; Vivika Dass, Aviva Life Insurance and Arindam Paul, GIDF from Birla Planetarium at 7.30 am today.
The walkathon, which aimed at creating awareness regarding education for underprivileged children, saw enthusiastic participation by people of Kolkata who came forward to support this noble cause. The 5km walk moved from Birla Planetarium to Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Road to Park Street, Chowringee Road and then finally culminated at the Birla Planetarium.
According to Professor Arindam Chaudhuri, president – Aurobindo Chaudhuri Memorial Great Indian Dream Foundation: "Our primary aim is to communicate a social message of making efforts to stand by a large number of less privileged children who don’t have opportunities but are equally capable. All they need is a little support and unbiased prospects and they shall be ready to make India shine, thereby fulfilling the Great Indian Dream. We look forward to associating with corporates like Aviva that help in making a difference to the community."
Vivek Khanna, marketing director, 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 – Kal par control."
This is the second successful walkathon organized by Aviva and GIDF. The first was held in Chandigarh in December 2005 and it fulfilled its objective of creating awareness and raising funds for the less privileged children in Jammu & Kashmir. In the next phase, GIDF plans to extend this walkathon beyond Kolkata and would like to engage like-minded people from Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and other cities to come up in large numbers for the support of education for underprivileged children.
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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.
For further information please contact:
Arindam Paul
GIDF
Ph: 09868145570
e-mail: a.paul@gidf.org
Pooja Khan
Aviva Life Insurance
Ph: 09811315510
e-mail: pooja.khan@avivaindia.com