Chennai: What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear Amazon? Sales, discounts, offers, mega-saver discounts, right?
But little do we know about its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
Amazon joined hands with CARE India, an NGO known for working towards women empowerment and promoting micro-entrepreneurship, to float Amazon Cares, the CSR initiative of Amazon India.
They developed a community centre in December 2016 to support five villages on the outskirts of Chennai – Pudhuvoyal, S Panapakkam, Madhavaram, Keelmeni and Durainallur. More than 770 households benefit through this initiative.
These community centres cover four vital aspects of the villagers: education, livelihood, women empowerment and health.
Before starting a community centre, they do ground work and conduct research about the needs and necessities of the villagers. Once that is done, they then start the community centre.
The villagers initially eyed this initiative with scepticism, but Amazon Cares has opened 14 community centres across India that support 60 villages. The locals eventually accepted them.
At the community centre in Pudhuvoyal, the villagers are taught tailoring, basic computer skills, beautician course, fashion designing and candle-making, to name a few.
“It is quite difficult to bring in the first two batches,” concedes Shamala, a CARE India official. “Once we train them, they then talk about this initiative to the other villagers. More people then slowly start turning up.”
“People didn’t believe that I stitched it myself,” smiles Selvi, a villager who learns tailoring here. “They explain patiently. I can now stitch clothes myself. This also helps me earn extra.”
Teaching these women skills has given them the independence they need to lead a better life. Many earn about Rs 10,000 a month with the skills they have acquired at the community centre. “I used to ask for money from my husband to travel,” says Mythili, another villager. “But now I don’t have to.” These empowered women offer their services to other residents.
Amazon Cares has also made some big changes in the schools of these villages. They have collaborated with Play Learn Foundation to provide activity-based learning support to schoolchildren, targeting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). These students are given robotic kits to learn simple concepts in physics.
Headmistress of the Government Panchayat Union Middle School at Madhavaram, Tamil Arasi, says, “The students would absent themselves from school but ever since robotics and e-learning classrooms were built, the attendance rate has spiked.”
As a part of the health initiative, Amazon India promotes preventive healthcare through partnerships with the local medical community and government organisations. Around 180 beneficiaries have been reached through these programs.