Date:13/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/13/stories/2008091359630200.htm

Tamil Nadu

Car makers turn care givers for a week

Special Correspondent

Ford India employees venture out for social services

— Photo: A.Muralitharan

FuN time: Children of the Panchayat Union Primary School in Keezhakkaranai applaud as an employee of Ford India conducts a game for them on Friday as part of the company’s CSR initiatives.

TAMBARAM: Taking a break from their schedule of assembling cars, a few hundred employees of car manufacturer Ford India would be spending a week serving society in different ways, volunteering to regulate traffic, cleaning a village, spending time among the underprivileged and hosting a day filled with games and fun among government school students etc.

Globally, several thousand employees of Ford observe September 6 to 14 as Global Week of Caring, where volunteers from the company reach out to the local community through service initiatives. In Chennai, employees from the assembly line, executives and officers from the corporate side have been taking part in voluntary service initiatives in villages around the car plant in Maraimalai Nagar.

On Friday, employees visited the Panchayat Union Primary School in Keezhakkaranai village near the car plant, spending the day among the children singing rhymes along with them, conducting games and giving away toys and gifts. The Ford employees also gave charts, learning and play material to the Children’s Centre of Integrated Child Development Services near the school.

“It is voluntary and employees cutting across various ranks take part in the community activities,” said Bing M.Arias, Consultant, Corporate Communications.

So far, they had helped police in regulating traffic flow in Tambaram apart from distributing pamphlets on road safety and overcoming stress to drivers. Earlier, they had visited a private home for physically challenged, orphaned and special children at Vallam village near Chengalpattu.

“We conducted sports for the children and the experience was overwhelming,” Ms. Arias said.

They have schemes under health, education, environment protection and HIV/AIDS awareness. They plan to visit a couple of more villages in the days to come in Singaperumal Koil where they would be cleaning up the entire locality and distribute brightly painted bins so that residents of the village could dump their garbage. The Week of Caring activities was in addition to the programmes it had taken up under the Corporate Social Responsibility, she added.