We share news of various activities at each of our locations, our achievements and relevant important developments with our key stakeholders through a quarterly newsletter update that we publish called "Together for Communities". Recent issues :
Like many other villages across the country, the current lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted the lives of many, including over 13,000 inhabitants of Dehlan, the largest village of Himachal Pradesh. To help protect local communities against the pandemic, ACC TRUST joined hands with the local village authorities of Dehlan, to sanitize the entire village comprising ~250 households. ACC TRUST is also distributing food packets of essential items such as pulses, oil and sugar to help people in the village to tide over the crisis.
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India’s three-week lockdown to stop the contagion of COVID-19 has badly impacted migrant workers who live far away from their families. ACC is providing fuel wood to brick kiln labourers stranded in Medersara village in Chattisgarh, working alongside the local gram panchayat which is making food arrangements for the labourers. Every single one of us has to play our part in the fight against COVID-19 and ACC is committed to do its bit.
Hundreds of women are working round-the-clock to produce face-masks for frontline workers fighting COVID-19 across the country. As India is facing an acute shortage of face-masks, ACC TRUST has stepped in and engaged its associate Self Help Grops (SHGs) across its countrywide ecosystem to produce three-layered face-masks that are the need of the hour. Over the years, ACC' s alternative livelihood DISHA centres have trained thousands of women in local communities in vocational skills such as industrial tailoring and encouraged them to form Self-Help Groups (SHGs). Now, to protect workers who are fighting on the frontlines, ACC is using this network of trained women to produce much-needed masks for local municipalities, santitation workers, vegetable vendors and those who are providing essential services. It also helps them contribute to the household income at a time when other family members are not going out to work. ACC TRUST has produced and dispatched ~ 23,000 triple-layered masks thus far, and in the next few days, another 20,000 masks will be ready for dispatch.
YOUTUBE At Khushberiya and Simatand villages in Sindri, Jharkhand, ACC volunteers are walking through the villages with microphones to educate and create awareness on COVID-19 among villagers. Social distancing can reduce India's cases of COVID-19 by up to 62%, says an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study. Most of ACC's 17 manufacturing units are located in rural areas and our teams are taking the lead to educate neighbouring communities and villages through tele-calling, mobile vans with loud-speakers, posters etc on the immediate need for social distancing, the importance of personal sanitation and respiratory hygiene. ACC has covered ~93 villages in 11 states and the teams are reaching out to many more.
YOUTUBEWe are so proud of our ACC volunteers who are distributing food and provisions to people affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. The lockdown has brought daily life to a grinding halt, disrupted supply chains and made it difficult for migrant labour and communities to secure essential commodities. To ensure that no one goes hungry, ACC TRUST volunteers have distributed more than 10,000 packets of provisions and food across the country so far, and are reaching out to many more.
YOUTUBEWadi in Karnataka's Gulbarga district has rich limestone and sahabad stone mines that attract workers from across the country in search of seasonal livelihood opportunities. The nationwide lockdown on account of COVID-19 and lack of daily wages have adversely affected these workers, forcing them to take shelter in public areas with inadequate basic facilities. We are proud of our ACC volunteers who visited the workers and provided assistance – from ACC's Chief Medical Officer who conducted the primary health screening and educated them on hygiene, social distancing and staying safe during the pandemic, to providing shelter and necessary facilities at ACC colony in Wadi. While they are being quarantined, these volunteers are providing food and provisions as well as basic necessities. ACC is committed to supporting vulnerable communities during this crisis.
Today, hundreds of thousands of labourers across the country are stranded far away from home on account of the lockdown ACC and Ambuja Cements have collectively contributed Rs.3.30 crore to three NGOs - Goonj, Praja Foundation and Mumbai Roti Bank, to provide food and ration kits to daily-wagers and migrant labour stranded due to the lockdown. Our teams of volunteers are also on ground distributing food and provisions to migrant labourers in areas near our operations. We are committed to playing our part in supporting those most impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and supporting communities in distress.
Watch the story of Susan John. A teacher whose school was left washed out during the Kerala floods. Her indomitable spirit to get the school up and running again is an inspiration for each one of us.YOUTUBE
ACC has established schools at most of its locations that provide high quality education to children of employees and those from the host communities. In addition, the company also supports schools in the vicinity. Technology aided education initiatives such as Smart Classes and interactive kiosks have been implemented at several ACC locations for enhancing the quality of learning. ACC continues to support Government run ITIs under the Public Private Partnership scheme to upgrade the quality of education which in turn improves the skills and employability of students.
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ACC recognizes Women’s empowerment as a priority. The company encourages women to form Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the communities around its plant locations. Members of the SHGs are trained in capacity-building, various individual crafts, marketing skills, accounts, teamwork and other relevant aspects. ACC AHEAD (Association of Health, Education And Development), a voluntary group constituted of ACC employees’ spouses, takes active part in this vocational training.
ACC organizes health camps and mobile van health services for the community around its plants. ACC hospitals complement the local government’s Primary Health Care centres and Community Health Care centres. Anganwadi Centres have been set up at most plant locations. In this way, ACC reaches out to mothers and children with immunization, Ante & Post Natal care and growth monitoring programmes. To promote health and dignity among the communities around our plants, community toilets and toilets for individual households were constructed in a participatory manner.
ACC promotes skill development among the rural youth. Industry needs skilled persons while a large part of the rural youth is unskilled and unemployed. Our CSR programmes connect the youth to high standard skills training institutions, providing partial financial support, wherever necessary as well as extending help in enrolment and in obtaining placement.
Our livelihood and income generation initiatives helped in training and placing youth with various employers. Some of these young men have been provided technical skill training on construction and subsequently placed in suitable jobs.
ACC plays a meaningful role in the nationwide effort to eradicate HIV/AIDS. In close consultation with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the company stepped forward to support the government in battling this important public health issue by adopting a Workplace policy for HIV/AIDS that protects the fundamental human rights of employees who may unfortunately become affected by HIV/AIDS, while also ensuring that these affected persons get proper care and treatment.
The company also set up two Anti Retroviral Treatment Centres for HIV/AIDS treatment – one outside ACC’s Wadi plant in Karnataka and the second at Vellore, Tamil Nadu in partnership with the reputed Christian Medical College. Both ART Centres are run as state-of- the-art treatment centres with all the basic physical infrastructure, medical equipment, laboratory facilities and trained medical and support personnel as prescribed by NACO ART guidelines. They include Voluntary Counselling and Testing centres and are sought to be operated world-class facilities.
The most effective approach to judge the utility of CSR schemes is that which is transparent, participative and based on perceptions of target beneficiaries themselves. We have continuously improved our approach to assess the effectiveness of CSR projects and now use a three-tier monitoring and evaluation mechanism. The first tier is conducted at village level through regular interactions with stakeholders and partner organizations. A larger assessment is made from a regional and thematic perspective. At the national level, periodic reviews by top management, annual internal audits and third party studies enable us to assess progress vis-a-vis our CSR policy and compliance requirements. A summary of the last such study and the parameters used in evaluation are attached.
