Ambuja Cement Foundation enables communities to realize their potential

While Ambuja Cement Ltd. plays a key role in India’s development and its blueprint for the future its Corporate Social Responsibility wing plays an overarching role in supporting the social foundation of the nation.

With a team of over 300 professionals at 20 locations Ambuja Foundation caters to a very diverse set of issues in several areas including water resource management, livelihoods, healthcare, education, women’s empowerment, infrastructure and disaster relief.

We met with Pearl Tiwari (Director) and Vishal Bhardwaj (General Manager) of Ambuja Cement Foundation to find out more about their work.

Ambuja Cement Foundation functions as an independent implementing arm of the company and integrates it with its CSR initiatives leveraging on the expert workforce at plant locations.

Ambuja Cement Foundation has adopted a ‘do it yourself’ approach to community development. The Foundation has been implementing projects at twenty locations across India where the manufacturing units are located.

Last year, the foundation spent 42 crores and the estimated expenditure for 2011-12 will be close to 45 crores.  About 60% of their funds come from the parent company. The rest comes from other partners and stakeholders including Government support and contribution from the community.

A major portion of their activities come under the purview of natural resource management. They work on issues related to water resources, agriculture and agro-based livelihood.

Skill-based livelihood is also growing rapidly as an area of focus with 13 skill and entrepreneurship development institutions set up in different parts of the country.

Disaster relief and redevelopment is an important aspect of the Foundation’s work. In the event of a disaster Ambuja employees are among the first to respond. The Foundation together with the company’s employees provide support in emergency relief, medical assistance, reconstruction work, etc.

“Within hours of the Kutch earthquake our employees were at the site and we realized that it was important to keep the affected children engaged and away from the mayhem. We set up temporary schools for the children and got student volunteers from social work and other Institutes who were present for relief work to teach them,” says Tiwari.

In Kutch, after the earthquake, the Foundation started a program for training the local people in masonry. Over 1200 masons were trained during the year 2001-02. It helped them in the redevelopment of the region and also to provide them employment.

“In disaster rehabilitation it makes more sense to train local people in masonry instead of getting people from outside. We have the expertise to train and it has worked very well,” says Tiwari.

The Foundation plans to implement masonry training program on a large scale. This advanced program is a 2 month’s intensive course conducted by experts from the company. The Foundation lays emphasis on collaborations and has worked together with Government agencies, NGOs and private companies to implement projects.

“We are perhaps one of the first corporates to enter into partnerships with other private organizations.” said Vishal.

For instance, they work together with Apollo Tyres to help truckers and have set up four health care centers for them.

A skill development centre in Himachal was founded in partnership with Punjab National Bank. Other partnerships have been made with State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur in Rajasthan. According to Vishal, transparency is the most important aspect in any kind of collaboration. With nonprofit organizations, the foundation tries to engage in free exchange of information and resources as much as possible. In Gujarat, they have founded a Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell with the Aga Khan Rural Support Program and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust.

“Our real partners are our communities. We do not work as a service provider. The community leads and implements the programs.” says Vishal.