Our responsibility towards people, patients, communities and the natural environment override our business endeavours. To deliver exceptional outcomes and foster mutually beneficial relationships, we remain committed to make positive changes to the lives of our stakeholders. Our CSR initiatives act as an impetus for creating value for communities and the society at large.
Gland-Fosun Foundation was set up to broadly focus on serving the society by providing Education, Good Health, Safety, Conservation of Environment, Eco-Systems and Natural Resources.
In February 2021, in association with a healthcare provider, we conducted a ‘Comprehensive Health Plan’ for about 2000 socio-economically children from 26 government schools and orphanages in Hyderabad, to help them grow and develop to their full potential. After being screened through diagnostic tests, the children were counselled by health professionals on nutritional aspects, and treated with suitable supplements.
In June 2020, we contributed to LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), to help them procure PPE kits, gloves, masks, face-shields and sanitation material for frontline health workers in their 180 Eye Care Vision Centres in Telangana, AP, Odisha and Karnataka.
We have also contributed to LVPEI for the setting up of a dedicated ‘Centre for Elderly Eye Care’ at Hyderabad. Inaugurated on 1st June 2021, the Centre will provide diagnostic and treatment services to all those in need on a sustainable basis. Over the next three years, it will also provide surgical services for at least 3,500 people, as well as house-to-house screening services for 5,000 aged people.
In December 2020, we made a contribution to Lions Eye Hospital (Moula Ali, Hyderabad), to help them set up a ‘Modular Operation Theatre’ in their new Surgical Wing, and thereby expand their outreach to those in need of surgical procedures.
In November 2019, we launched a first-of-its-kind ‘Free Breakfast Scheme’ for nearly 9100 children of 66 government-run schools around our manufacturing facilities in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. These children begin their day with a nutritious breakfast prepared hygienically and supplied by Akshaya Patra Foundation, to whom we have provided funding support. As most of these children are from impoverished backgrounds, or their parents (daily-wage earners) go off to work early in the morning, they hardly eat anything before coming to school. This adversely affects their physical health, and impacts their learning and development. We had served nearly 557,000 breakfast meals up to March 2020, when the Scheme was suspended on account of the COVID lockdown that closed all the schools. We expect the schools to re-open soon, so that we can resume the Breakfast Scheme, this time catering to at least 12,000 school-going children, as well as another 500 beneficiaries (pregnant women, lactating mothers and 3-6 year-old pre-school children) at nearby ‘Anganwadi’ Centres.
In our endeavour to provide a variety of breakfast meals to school children, in November 2021 we have funded a novel and fully automated idli-making machine at Akshaya Patra Foundation's community Kitchen at Kandi (Telengana). The machine can mass-produce up to 45,000 idlis in just a couple of hours. This initiative will further strengthen the support towards the free breakfast programme ensuring that children start their day with a good breakfast that aids in improving their general health and academic performance.
A few months after the lockdown had come into effect, we developed an alternative way of reaching these children by distributing ‘Happiness Boxes’ at these schools, through their teaching / support staff. A ‘Happiness Box’ contains: 1) a Nutrition component (biscuits, wheat flour, fortified salt, whole green mung, desi chana, sambar masala powder, turmeric powder, cinnamon sticks, jaggery, peanuts), 2) an Education component (notebooks, activity workbook, pencils / pens) and 3) a Hygiene component (toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, sanitizer bottle). We distributed over 41,000 ‘Happiness Boxes’ during the year. They were extremely popular with all the beneficiaries, and drew appreciation from the Governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, as well as from the Central Government.
When government schools in Telangana cautiously reopened for a brief period in early 2021, we distributed over 16,500 ‘Swatha Saala’ (Sanitisation) Kits at 110 government schools of Medchal-Malkajgiri District, to help the children observe adequate sanitary precautions. Each comprised 1) a non-invasive thermometer per school, 2) two wall-mounted solution dispensers per school, 3) two facemasks and one-litre plastic water bottles per child, and 4) gloves and caps for personnel serving meals.
We have completely renovated a government school building in Narsapur Municipality (Telangana), including construction of additional classrooms, a dining hall and kitchen-cum-store, a staff room, and separate toilets for boys and girls.
We have also undertaken a full-fledged renovation of a government school in Dommarapochampally (Medchal-Malkajgiri District, Telangana), including extensive repairs / extension of the school’s main building (including additional classrooms and a laboratory), a toilet block for staff / children, a separate canteen block (comprising a spacious dining hall and a kitchen-cum-store), and a proper stage for morning prayers / assemblies.
We sponsor teachers and non-teaching staff (helpers / security staff / scavengers) in several nearby government schools that are facing a shortage of them, thereby doing our bit in ensuring quality education for these children. We also provide notebooks / workbooks to needy children of some government schools.
Hyderabad-based ‘Sannihita Homes’ is an NGO that runs four orphanages (three for girls and one for boys), looking after nearly 400 destitute orphans from vulnerable communities (badly abused backgrounds with no care / homeless / beggars / rag-pickers / migrant families). These destitute children are given shelter, food, education, healthcare and protection.
We have undertaken to renovate these orphanages, in order to improve the living conditions of the orphans. We are also providing funding support to the NGO to help meet some of their regular personnel and administrative expenses.
This Hyderabad-based NGO shelters mentally challenged women and addresses their special needs through therapeutic services, music, yoga, speech and physiotherapy. It also 1) sensitises the community to the special needs of the mentally challenged, 2) works with families, the community, voluntary and government agencies, and 3) runs courses in Special Education and Caregivers’ Training.
Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), we have contributed Rs 1.2 Cr to a ‘Community Cattle Centre’ set up by the Government of Telangana at Siddipet. Serving as a ‘cattle hostel’, the Centre pools in the milch cattle of individual farmers of surrounding villages. With centralized nurturing / medical facilities for the cattle, the Centre enables dairy farmers to supply to nearby procurement agencies and explore better marketing incomes. It also improves sanitation in the villages, and processes animal dung into manure and vermicompost.
Our funding support was utilised to 1) build a compound wall around the campus, 2) a shed for delivery/birthing and sick animals, 3) feeding channels, drinking water bowls, internal/external drains, 4) a clinic-cum-training hall-cum-cooperative store, 5) 10 mini-sheds to keep farmers’ belongings, 6) two staff quarters, one security room and one milk collection room and 7) a 25000-litre overhead tank.
Our funds have also been used to procure 1) a feed-chopper, 2) a dung-log making unit, 3) a khova-making machine, 4) dung-collection trolleys, 5) CC cameras and music system, 6) four heavy-duty cleaning machines and 7) 15 solar lights.
We contributed Rs 20 Lakhs to Nehru Zoological Park (Hyderabad) for the upkeep of its numerous wild birds and animals. It was warmly welcomed by the zoo authorities as well as several wildlife conservationists / animal lovers, who acclaimed it as a much-needed CSR gesture during this lockdown period, when gate collections are badly depleted.
Further in October 2021, we have donated Rs 20 lakh for the construction and maintenance of the kangaroo fence in Nehru Zoological Park.
The unforeseen countrywide lockdown imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 traumatised innumerable slum-dwellers and daily-wage earners by forcing them out of work, leaving them clueless as to when and where they would get their next meal. During those extremely difficult times, Gland Pharma distributed tens of thousands of ‘dry ration’ bags, each containing packets of rice, dal, sugar, oil, potatoes, onions, tamarind, etc. The company also served cooked food to thousands of migrant workers and other impoverished people in slums and villages. We also provided N-95 face masks to doctors, hospital staff, healthcare workers and police personnel battling COVID-19 at great risk to themselves, as well as to students and other sections of the public. Gland Pharma also contributed Rs 1.2 Cr to the Governments of Telangana and AP. In addition, 1000 groceries packets were made over to Vizag Police Commissioner, for distribution to the poor and needy.
Under the AP Government’s ‘Connect to Andhra’ Project, we distributed PPE kits, N95 masks, 3-ply masks, and sanitizer bottles in the State’s Krishna and West Godavari districts. We also provided PPE kits, N95 masks, 3-ply masks, sanitizer bottles, infrared thermometers and oxy-pulsemeters for several Primary Health Centres in Sangareddy and Medchal-Mallkajgiri districts of Telangana.
We distributed nearly 150 ventilators to various government / charitable hospitals in Narayanpet, Karimnagar, Bodhan, Jangaon, Warangal, Mulugu, Nirmal, Kothagudem and Sircilla districts of Telangana, as well as to Osmania General Hospital, Quarantine (Fever) Hospital and NIMS Hospital in Hyderabad. In addition, we contributed critically needed multi-channel monitors, HDF, ultrasound and ECG machines to Osmania General Hospital and Niloufer Hospital, Hyderabad.
