Project Pradnya supports children in Pune, India

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Project “Pradnya” is aimed at enriching the lives of underprivileged children who do not have access to mainstream education. All of the employees at the Pune plant have decided to dedicate some of their own time to share knowledge and information with these children and support them in their learning.

In India, 2 million children live on the street and over 14,600 of these children live in Pune. These children have often been orphaned or abandoned or have run away from home. They are vulnerable to forms of abuse and often do not have any way out of this situation. This is where our colleagues in Pune are trying to help.

“Pradyna” means ‘Knowledge’ in Sanskrit. Our colleagues in our Indian plant are working with a school Pune that takes care of around 350 underprivileged children, mainly from nomadic and financially challenged background. The project provides these children with education and trade skills including pottery, casting, agriculture and dairy management in the hope that this will allow these children to build a better life.

A team of three Pune colleagues voluntarily spend two hours every Saturday and sharing stories and videos of real-life heroes like India’s beloved Late President Dr Abdul Kalam who had a very ordinary childhood and Hima Das - an Indian athlete also coming from a very poor family, who recently became the first Indian women to win a gold medal in a track & field event at IAAF world U20 championship have been shared with the kids. The team also share information on the topics of science, geography, history, how things are produced in factories and other related co-curricular topics.

This support from our colleagues in Pune helps these children develop real life skills and inspires them to try new things. This will hopefully give them opportunities which allow them to leave their challenging circumstances behind them, instilling confidence in them that they too can succeed.

The Pune plant has also donated 750 benches across nine schools around Pune through the Bench project. This project continues to enrich the lives of school children around Pune and is in its 5th successful year. This year Pune has plans to donate another 118 benches across four schools in tribal areas around the plant.