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CSR in Action in India
A percentage of our profits in India will be set aside each year
for KPMG Foundation initiatives. This is in addition to the USD
250,000 we have received from KPMG International, which is earmarked
for ongoing tsunami relief activities in South India.
South India
Healthcare Centre and Mobile Medical Unit
The people of Pazhaverkadu (Pulicat Lake Area), 65 kilometres from
Chennai have to travel nearly 20 kilometres to receive medical treatment
and often have to borrow money from local moneylenders at high interest
rates for their expenses. To provide healthcare to the people of
this area, KPMG has partnered with CII to work with the All India
Movement (AIM) for Seva, a non-profit public charitable trust, on
setting up a healthcare centre and mobile medical unit.
The centre will provide basic and emergency medical care to 15
villages, each comprising 300 families. It will also promote the
use of herbs to prevent and cure common diseases, while providing
modern medicines along with ayurvedic, homeopathic, and yoga techniques,
wherever required. The mobile unit aims to provide treatment to
patients reluctant to visit the centre, while inculcating the habit
of seeking professional medical assistance and promoting health
awareness. Free medical treatment will be provided to the poor.
Desalination plants
Vairam Kuppam and Thirumalai Nagar villages, also in the Pulicat
Lake Area in Tamil Nadu, are facing an acute water shortage. Following
the tsunami of December 2004, the bore wells in this area have become
saline and fresh water has become scarce. For the 350 families in
Vairam Kuppam and 400 families in Thirumalai Nagar, drinking water
has now become a huge problem. They often have to take a ferry to
the mainland to buy water at exorbitant rates.
KPMG has joined hands with CII and AIM for Seva to build two desalination
plants in these two villages. These plants will provide 1,000 litres
of drinking water per hour, using reverse osmosis and UV treatment
to purify the water. Each family will have access to a minimum of
15 litres of drinking water at a nominal cost. A proposal to set
up a children's park around the desalination plants is also being
finalised.
KPMG will bear the initial cost of setting up the plant. Once the
plant becomes operational, the villagers will take over its operation
and maintenance. Work on the plants is already underway.
North India
CanSupport is a non-profit organisation that works in collaboration
with Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital to provide care and counselling
to cancer patients. Most of the patients the group caters to are
so poor that they cannot afford even cheap analgesics. For such
terminally ill patients, CanSupport provides individual and group
counselling, home care through a team of doctors, nurses, and counsellors,
and often even drugs, medical and nutritional aids, free of charge.
At present, the organisation has four home care teams that treat
120-130 patients, visiting each of them at least once a week. In
order to widen the reach of this programme, CanSupport proposed
the setting up of a satellite centre in Gurgaon. The centre will
act as a base for a home care team operating in the area and will
also function as a day-care facility-cum-training centre.
The Foundation will fund this initiative. The money will be utilised
to set up the satellite centre, to procure a vehicle and driver
for the home care team, hire a doctor, nurse, and counsellor to
staff the team, acquire basic equipment for the centre, and meet
additional costs like those incurred on training, etc.
The new centre will double the current reach of the organisation,
providing patients with cost-effective care. It will facilitate
the training of additional personnel to strengthen existing teams
and will help spread cancer awareness. More importantly, by providing
palliative care to terminally ill people in the poorer sections
of society, it will reduce the pain and suffering of patients and
families and help them cope with the disease and the toll it takes.
Western India
We are in the process of identifying suitable projects in this
region.
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