AppLabs CSR Activities

AppLabs Government Primary School

Education is a major area of focus in CSR activities for AppLabs. Further to it the company has adopted a government school in B.R. Ambedkar Nagar, a small locality based in the up-scale film nagar area of Hyderabad, India. With over 180 students, the school was originally run in a small temporary shack. Looking at the lack of infrastructure at the school, the AppLabs Charitable Trust (ACT) immediately initiated a dialogue with Sarva Shiksha Abhyan (SSA), Department of the Government of India, to work on a public-private partnership to fund the construction of the school building. The construction of the school is completed in about 450 square yards, comprising of the ground plus two floors. It is equipped with seven spacious classrooms, two staff rooms, and one library room. As per the signed MOU with the SSA authorities, the school is named as 'AppLabs Government Primary School'.

In primary education, ACT is in the process of adopting two more new govt. schools at Gopanapalli and Madinaguda located in and around Rangareddy District.

ACT has implemented many welfare programs at the AppLabs Govt. Primary School such as which include:

• Donating text books and other stationary items to the school children
• ACT members volunteered to teach the students Math, Science, and English
• ACT has set-up a computer lab for the school children
• Hired experienced school teachers to teach in English and Telugu Medium
• Distributing fruits, sweets, fire crackers and organizing games for the children on festive holidays such as ‘Diwali’ (festival of lights) and on special occasions like the Indian Independence day.

The AppLabs GPS has a student population of 180 boys and girls, studying from Class 1 to Class 5.

Healthcare:

Under Health initiatives, ACT conducts health camps at the AppLabs GPS and other adopted schools in partnership with Lotus Children’s Hospital for every 3-6 months. Students are thoroughly screened by Pediatricians, Opthamologist, and Dental specialist to diagnose student’s health condition in these areas. School authorities monitor the health of the students on a regular basis using the health card provided by the Lotus Hospitals. ACT also conducts health talks to the parents of the students to educate them about healthy and better living conditions.

ACT also works closely with Nirmal Hriday, an NGO run by the Mother Teresa Charitable Trust which supports 17 old age homes in Andhra Pradesh and 14 in Orissa, and provides shelter to destitute patients suffering from tuberculosis and diabetes, as well as HIV positive patients. AppLabs makes quarterly donations of life saving medicines to the organization.

ACT is very proud to be associated with this noble cause.

The healthcare initiatives of ACT include:

• Periodic donations of medicines to ‘Little Sisters of the Poor-Home for the Aged’
• Quarterly donation of old clothes to the ‘Aleti Home’ for the mentally challenged, which houses over 40 inmates, as well as to the patients in the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad
• Financial contribution to support the brain tumor operation of an 11 year old boy, Kiran Kumar at the Apollo Hospital, Hyderabad
• Donating super specialty beds to Andhra Mahila Sabha, an organization that provides medical assistance to the poor and free education to mentally challenged boys and girls.

 Other initiatives include organizing quarterly Blood Donation camps organized in association with the Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust in Hyderabad. Over 300 employees support the cause at every camp.

ACT conducted its fifth blood donation Camp on April 18th, 2008 that witnessed participation from employees of all the three facilities in Hyderabad, as the administration team made the necessary transportation arrangements. To motivate employees, ACT had conducted email and poster campaigns.

Many employees had donated for the third time in a row which showed their concern to the needy. All the donors have been given a ‘Donor Card’ from CCT with which the donor can obtain one unit of blood without replacement whenever needed over a period of one year.

Donation of blood can be termed heroic as it would serve the purpose of protecting an ailing person, a fellow being, or an accident victim or those who want to survive, as well as blood banks to control the quality and the declining stocks.

AppLabs is very proud to be associated with this noble cause.

The healthcare initiatives of ACT include:

• Periodic donations of medicines to ‘Little Sisters of the Poor-Home for the Aged’

• Quarterly donation of old clothes to the ‘Aleti Home’ for the mentally challenged, which houses over 40 inmates, as well as to the patients in the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad

• Financial contribution to support the brain tumor operation of an 11 year old boy, Kiran Kumar at the Apollo Hospital, Hyderabad

• Donating super speciality beds to Andhra Mahila Sabha an organization, which provides medical assistance to the poor and free education to mentally challenged boys and girls.

The ACT team also regularly visits Rakshana Deepam, a home for HIV patients situated outside the main city of Hyderabad, wherein they interact and spend some quality time with the inmates. Recently, the volunteers donated clothes for men, women, and children as well as shoes and toys for the patients. ACT conducts its 7th Blood donation Camp in partnership with the Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust

ACT in collaboration with the Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust (CCT), established by the renowned telugu actor Chiranjeevi, conducted its 7th blood donation camp recently at their Global Engineering Centre, located in Hyderabad. ACT has successfully conducted five blood donation camps till date in association with CCT, which have seen excellent participation from all AppLabs’ employees working at two main facilities located in Hyderabad. ACT members also conducted email and poster campaigns to spread the message of the cause. Over 100 associates participated in the 7th edition of this initiative.

All the donors were given a ‘Donor Card’ by CCT with which the donor can obtain one unit of blood without replacement whenever needed over a period of one year. Donor card is absolutely free and can be used by the donor or his/her relatives. Additionally, all the donors were also given a comprehensive list of donors along with their blood groups, which will be useful in locating the donors, whenever needed. ACT is happy to be a part of this noble cause and looks forward in taking up similar initiatives.

Social Causes:

ACT regularly organizes voluntary donation camps called ‘SAMARPAN’ (which in Hindi means ‘committing to a cause’), which provides the perfect platform for employees to demonstrate their compassionate nature for making generous donations of clothes, footwear, books, foodstuffs, household and personal care items for the poor and the needy. The proceeds are further distributed in all the schools and homes adopted by ACT, as well as in the slum areas in and around Hyderabad. Due to the overwhelming response and support for this initiative, the AppLabs voluntary donation camps have become yet another success story in their CSR initiatives.

ACT has also collaborated with Family Services, a voluntary organization based out of Bangalore that seeks to help the underprivileged and runs multiple projects and schools for the physically and mentally challenged children.

The organization has also been able to focus on some of the concerns of the corporate sector management. These concerns range from the need for de-stressing materials and activities, input that would help people bond, the need for a family like atmosphere, inter personal relationships etc. Internationally, Family services has been able to successfully create products (VCD’s, Audio CD’s for adults and children, story books, desktop calendar and print materials that could help fulfil some of these needs.

AppLabs and its employees have extended support to the organization’s multiple causes by regularly buying their products. The money raised from this activity will be used to support various projects this NGO is currently undertaking at various parts of the country, there by helping millions of people who are beneficiaries of their noble initiatives.

Recently, ACT collaborated with Spoorthi, simple grass-root organization working for underprivileged children - homeless, orphaned, abandoned and other ‘at-risk’ groups. The mission of this collaboration is to change lives of children belonging to such underprivileged groups by providing them with long-term care and skills and transform them into responsible citizens.

AppLabs featured in the World Bank Institute case study

A compilation of case studies entitled ‘Inclusive Response to HIV and AIDS challenge: Experience from the Indian IT sector’ on the initiatives and experiences of the eight leading IT companies in addressing issues related to HIV/AIDS was released by the World Bank Institute (WBI), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and India Business Trust (IBT) for HIV/AIDS recently. We are happy to announce that AppLabs is one amongst them. Click here to read more about it.

ACT on CII National CSR Panel

AppLabs has recently been nominated to the CII national CSR panel. The panel is working on various programs under the categories of - environment, education, health and sanitation, security and safety, amongst others. AppLabs is actively involved in recommending the 8-point national CSR plan, which needs to be implemented by the CII CSR panel in India.

To celebrate the world environment day on 5th of June, the member companies recently have undertaken 'Lake Cleanup' program in the outskirts of Hyderabad, India. Aside the cleaning up, planting of saplings has also been initiated. In total, 12 organizations including AppLabs planted around 1870 saplings.

AppLabs is also actively participating in CII’s new initiative - The Millenium Development Goals. As part of this program, CII along with its CSR panel companies is organizing workshops to sensitize industry on poverty, health, education, and environment. The workshops would analyze the current efforts in the development arena and also identify the major gaps on corporate partnerships impeding social developmental and inclusive growth. The outcome of this workshop is expected to vision; develop and aim to sustain public private partnerships towards perceived changes.