Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

GMR Varalakshmi Foundation has been involved in community service activities around Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Shamshabad from the day the foundation stone for the airport was laid in 2005. The mandate has been to work in the villages surrounding airport, with the affected villages as the main target. Thus Airport Colony (Rehabilitation Colony), Gollpally, Mammidipally and Shamshabad villages have been the main target villages for activities, while other surrounding villages have also been covered.

Education
The basic objective is to facilitate quality education in Shamshabad area, especially for the under-privileged children. Towards this, GMRVF has started a CBSE English Medium School (GMR Chinmaya Vidyalaya) within the airport campus in 2008. The school not only caters to the airport community but 20% of the seats are sponsored by the Foundation for poor and meritorious students from neighboring villages. 74 children are being currently supported in the school.

GMRVF also works extensively with the Govt. Schools and Anganwadis to improve the quality of education here.

Foundation has signed an MoU with Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Ranga Reddy District for adoption of Govt. Schools in the villages of Airport Colony (Primary School), Gollapally (Upper Primary School), Mammidipally (High School) and Shamshabad (Boys’ High School and Girls High School). The activities include after-school tuitions (for students of Std. IX and X), health check-ups, infrastructure support (like benches or toilets), provision of Vidya Volunteers, summer camps in summer holidays, celebration of events etc. One recent addition has been provision of IBM Kidsmart Centers in 3 schools to help the primary school children learn in a more fun and activity way. These centers are equipped with child-friendly computers and other learning materials to enable activity-based learning in the Govt. Schools. These activities of the Foundation benefit close to 2000 children every year.

Foundation has signed an MoU with ICDS Dept. for adopting 7 govt. Anganwadis in the villages of Airport Colony, Gollapally and Mammidipally. Need-based support is being extended to these Anganwadis like teaching learning material, infrastructure requirements, capacity-building for teachers, nutritional supplements, etc.

Foundation is also running 2 Bala Badis (pre-schools) on its own where there is a need with about 50 children enrolled. Capacity-building workshops are organized every year for both Govt. Anganwadis and Bala Badi teachers on the methods and approaches for teaching smaller children. Children are also provided with nutritious snacks at Bala Badis.

Health, Hygiene and Sanitation
A Mobile Medical Unit (MMU) regularly conducts its visits to 10 villages around the airport. More than 3,000 people, mainly elderly, benefit from this every month. Medical advice by a qualified doctor as well as medicines are provided free of cost to the elderly people through this service. The MMU is run in collaboration with Helpage India. Several health awareness camps and specialized medical camps are also organized at the target villages and other nearby villages.

There are five Weekly Medical Clinics running in the five villages neighboring the airport. More than 500 people utilize this service every week. The clinics are being run completely free with medical advice and medicines being provided. The clinics have a qualified and experienced MBBS doctor along with a pharmacist.

School health check-ups are regularly conducted at all the adopted Anganwadis, Primary Schools and Bala Badis. More than 1500 children are covered through these check-ups.

The Foundation has been running a Nutrition Centre for Pregnant and Lactating Women at the Airport Colony and Ranganayakula Tanda. In discussion with National Institute of Nutrition, a supplementary diet has been worked out which is given to the women who come to the centers every day. Along with this supplementary nutrition, women are oriented on the importance of institutional deliveries, vaccination, child care etc. Over 250 women have benefitted from these centres. The impacts of the Centre have been good as more than 90% of the women who attended the center had institutional deliveries and all are following the vaccination schedules.

Foundation has also built and is maintaining 8 public toilets in the twin cities in a Public-Private Partnership with GHMC setting new standards and benchmarks for the public facility.

Empowerment and Livelihoods
The Foundation has been providing free vocational training for rural unemployed youth from the villages surrounding the airport. More than 1200 youth have been trained at the residential vocational training centre at Shamshabad (GMR Varalakshmi Center for Empowerment and Livelihoods) in courses such as Electrical House wiring and Appliances Repair, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning, Computer MS Office and DTP, GWS (General Works Supervisor) and Micro Irrigation Techniques, etc. Most of these courses are run in partnership with concerned industry leaders such as Voltas, Schneider Electric, Hero Honda, VLCC and Jain Irrigation etc. to make the courses more market relevant. Trainees have been placed with leading firms such as B.L. Kashyap, Bank of America, Big Bazar etc. Through GMRVF facilitation, over 800 candidates from neighboring villages have also been placed in the airport for entry-level jobs like trolley pushers, parking attendants, cashiers, electricians, etc.

At the village level, the Foundation has been running ladies tailoring classes in four target villages for more than four years now. More than 800 women have been trained in these centers. Special skills like Maggam work, embroidery, etc. have also been provided at these centers.

EMPOWER (Enabling Marketing of Products of Women Entrepreneurs) is a unique initiative facilitated by the GMR Varalakshmi Foundation to support marketing of products made by women Self Help Groups. Under the initiative, capacity building and marketing support is provided to women groups. Initially, some women (who know basic tailoring) were trained in making specialized products like paper products, jute products etc. After the training they went into regular production and formed their own group called Srujna Mahila Abhivrudhi Society.

Towards marketing support, two shop spaces were provided at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Shamshabad for selling products made by SHG women. Apart from the products made by women groups promoted by GMRVF in its various project locations, the shops also house a wide range of products made by other SHGs across the state. The products sourced and sold at EMPOWER shops include Etikopakka and Kondapally toys, lace garments, Kalamkari products, leather puppets etc. All the channels of marketing have worked well and in the last two years, the EMPOWER initiative has made revenues of close to 50 lakhs with a remarkable growth of around 70% from 2009-10 to 2010-11.

Office sales and bulk orders are two other channels used for marketing products made by women groups.

Community Development
Community Libraries are being run at 5 villages to serve as centres of knowledge and information dissemination.