Cognizant Celebrates ‘Outreach Week’ In Bangalore

Bangalore, February 3, 2009: To mark the completion of the first year of Outreach, Cognizant’s novel social participation programme, the IT and BPO major celebrated ‘Outreach Week’ in Bangalore from January 25 through 31, 2009. During the week, Cognizant associates celebrated the spirit of goodwill by taking stock of their community outreach work over the past year and embarking upon new initiatives.

Outreach was launched in the year 2007 when Cognizant crossed the second billion dollar revenue mark and decided to celebrate this achievement by giving back to the society. This novel programme is focused on using a combination of voluntary efforts from Cognizant associates and funding from Cognizant to promote the cause of education. As part of this programme, Cognizant adopts orphanages and educational institutions catering to underprivileged children and helps them raise the required infrastructure and meet their training needs.

“Cognizant’s CSR activities help encourage social involvement of our employees and bond them as a team and with the organisation,” says Kalyan Mohan, Senior Vice President and Head of Bangalore Operations, Cognizant. “This is the source of immense pride and fulfilment both for the organisation and the employees. With a young workforce increasingly keen to contribute to the cause of creating a better society, grassroots voluntarism has acquired a new dimension. We firmly believe that corporate actions play a very important role in creating a climate of positive opinion.”

As a part of the Outreach Week, a team of Outreach volunteers organized a Sports Day for the students of the Ejipura School, Bangalore on January 25. About 350 children participated in various games and sports.

On the same day, another group of volunteers visited Asha Niketan, a community for mentally challenged people. The volunteers organized activities such as indoor games, a dance program, a walk in the park and high tea. Outreach volunteers had earlier donated money to fund the treatment of Nishita, a young Asha Niketan girl suffering from blood cancer.

A Science workshop ‘Science is fun’ was also organized at the Bal Mandir, near Kidwai hospital, Bangalore. About 30 kids attended the workshop where Outreach volunteers organized live experiments on various subjects ranging from Bernouli’s principle, the science behind sound waves, atmospheric pressure, and many more.

On January 26, the Outreach team organized for Republic Day celebrations at the Anantha Sishu Sevashram, an orphanage near Wilson Garden, Bangalore. The winners of the Sports Day at the Ejipura school were awarded with prizes. Some of the day’s activities included a colourful flag hoisting ceremony, a visit to the Big Banyan tree, and a short trip to the Kanva reservoir, located at around 40 km from Bangalore.

A fund raising event was organized from January 27-30, for Parikrama center for Learning. Focusing on the theme “Change the World in ½ day”, volunteers donated their half day’s salary to help build the Junior College and Facility Centre for Parikrama. A total of more than 200 associates contributed towards this event.

As part of the Outreach Anniversary celebration week, a notebook distribution drive was organized at a local school in Bypannhalli on January 28. The school currently has a strength of 250 children and the medium of instruction is Kannada. Outreach volunteers spend the day with the children and notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers and sharpeners were distributed among the children as a mark of extending encouragement to their quest for knowledge.

The Outreach week also provided an opportunity for associates to join in as volunteers for the council. Sanskriti, a Cultural festival and talent hunt competition, was organized by the Outreach Bangalore team on January 30, to help associates come forth to lend a helping hand. Some highlights of the event were the Guru-Shishya interaction session, Kalakriti – Drawing competition, Alaap – Singing Solo and Group Competition, Nrityangana – Dancing Solo and a Group Competition.

A visit to the Sri Sangam School, Bypannhalli and an educational trip for the Resurrection school students to Nehru planetarium and Visveswaraiah Museum were organized on January 31. About 300 children of the Resurrection School, Bangalore, were treated to a spectacular show on the “Solar System”. The children explored the museum and sharpened their know-how on various subjects.