Volunteers @ Work

- By Vijayanath Veepuri, Associate Technical Writer, CMA

Volunteers@work is a social work initiative spearheaded by a group of CMA India employees. This initiative was started primarily to provide monetary help to Anandashram, a senior citizens’ home just a stone’s throw from the EMC India office in Bangalore. Anandashram currently houses 27 elderly people along with 11 destitute children. The oldest of the residents at the home is Mrs. Subbalakshmi, who is 86 years old.

The Home is managed by a Trust called Social Workers Brotherhood. Apart from sheltering the aged and the homeless, the ashram has also been endeavoring for the emancipation of women from the underprivileged sections of the society. The ashram views education as a means of empowering women. As a first step towards achieving this objective, the ashram has started a Vocational Training Centre for Women, which provides free classes to equip the women with skills such as sewing, knitting and cooking. The training centre trains about 25 women every year, many of whom have been able to secure jobs in the textile industry after successful completion of the training. The ashram is committed to include computer training to this list in the near future.

Anandashram runs entirely on donations made by individual and corporate donors. Of late, the Home has been facing a financial crunch due to the dwindling of funds from its donors been struggling to provide basic amenities to its inmates. In the wake of the financial crisis perturbing Anandashram, Sunil Kashikar, a CMA Manager, asked CMA India employees to help the ashram. Consequently, the Volunteers@work initiative was born!

The Volunteers@work group maintains a close relationship with the ashram by making frequent visits, interacting closely with both the ashram staff and residents, listening to their problems, assessing their needs and relentlessly working towards fulfilling their requirements. The members meet on the last Friday of every month to discuss the planning, budgeting and execution of the various activities of the Volunteers@work initiative.

The CMA group provides a monthly contribution to cover the deficit in the maintenance costs of the ashram. Apart from providing monetary help, the members of the volunteer group have time and again stepped in to provide the much-needed medicines, toiletries and other supplies to the ashram inmates. At present, the group is working out the logistics of providing an inverter to the ashram, as well as shoes and clothes to the children. The initiative is able to cover only a part of the deficit in the running costs of the ashram due to insufficient funds.

Recently, the group has also volunteered to engage in other social causes, one being creating awareness in the India COE offices about the waste of electronic and paper waste in corporate office environments.

Volunteers@work initiative seeks donations and volunteers to support this humanitarian cause. The initiative runs a blog called http://volunteers-at-work.blogspot.com/ on blogspot.com.
For further information, please contact Vijaya Veepuri at Veepuri_Vijaya@emc.com