With the aim of tackling child rights issues through sports, human capital and management consulting services firm Aon India has partnered with Child Rights and You (CRY).
Aon India is the Indian subsidiary of Aon - headquartered in London, which was one of the sponsors of ‘Manchester United’.
CRY is one of India’s leading non-profit organisations working towards welfare of children.
‘Soccer for Child Rights’ is CRY’s annual event held in Bengaluru which is now in its third year, while Aon is partnering with CRY for the first time. This alliance will target 6,282 children from 52 villages to get uninterrupted education with better sporting facilities in their community. Overall, it will aim to reach out to 17,238 children across 435 children’s collectives in the southern region of the country.
The focus for this year is to be able to fund 435 sports kits for children from project areas in some of the most marginalised communities across four states. Each kit includes materials for cricket, football, badminton, throwball, carrom, chess and tennis and is designed to engage more than 40 children in each of the children’s collectives.
In an interaction with TNM, Tarandeep Singh, Partner and Asia Pacific Middle East Leader, Aon Assessments, spoke about various aspects of the programme.
Here are excerpts.
CRY’s annual event ‘Soccer for Child Rights’, what it’s all about?
CRY organises this tournament called Aon-CRY Soccer for Child Rights, where teams from 23 corporate bigwigs participate in a day-long tournament, to champion the cause of child rights.
This is the third consecutive year that the tournament is being organised, with 28 teams in all, including four women’s teams as well. There are also three children’s teams from the intervention areas of Vyasarpadi Children Empowerment Project, a CRY-supported project working for children in Chennai.
“CRY has always believed in working in the best interests of the child. It is our earnest effort to ensure that every child enjoys the right to childhood and sports is an integral part of it. Over the last two years, the stature of the tournament has only grown, encouraging us to make this a better and bigger platform that connects two very different sides of the society,” said Suma Ravi, Regional Director (South), CRY, while inaugurating the tournament.
How this association ties into Aon’s global goal to provide equal opportunity for every deserving candidate for a fulfilling career
At Aon, we are driven to empower economic and human possibilities for clients, colleagues and communities around the world. In light of this, we acquired CoCubes in 2016. Our goal is to provide equal career opportunity to every deserving candidate through valid and reliable assessments. Our goals with CRY are aligned, and complement the life cycle of the young – Education and Employment. We have come together to meet this goal through football.
Aon investment in terms of human, intellectual and financial resources for the betterment of communities in India and expected results
Association with VAANI in 2017-2018 – Teach for Deaf (TFD) program
· Supported a nine-month program to strengthen awareness and sensitization on ‘childhood
deafness’ amongst public in general
· Lent a helping hand to assigned Sadhan Resource Centers in Bengaluru
· Built capacities of Aon participants/volunteers on the basics of sign language
Association with APD in 2016-2017
· Supported a two-year integrated course that prepares trainees to work as factory technicians and an integrated course in basic Electronic Engineering
· The Target group of these trainings was youth with disability, mainly speech and hearing impairment candidates from marginalised sections
· The objectives were to equip and empower youth with disability through Government-approved Vocational Training programs and facilitate gainful employment
In addition, the following initiatives are being undertaken:
· Sponsoring mid-day meals for 200 children a year. The children are basically from very poor backgrounds, and we are trying to make them eligible for proper schooling.
· Support schools that empower underprivileged children with a high-quality holistic education rivalling the country’s elite schools.
How has been the response to the programme and any plans of expanding it to other areas?
The overall response to the tournament is very positive and encouraging. Aon Assessments, which was one of the prime sponsors of ‘Manchester United’, has come forward as the Title Sponsor for the tournament, and has announced their allegiance to support CRY in leveraging sports as a tool to fight child rights issues.
Excitement is evident among the city youths as well, as CRY volunteers are working towards spreading the word and mobilising spectators’ presence at the venue of the tournament, and the social media is buzzing with related feeds. For us, these are reasons enough to be excited.
Going forward, CRY envisages replicating this initiative in its other project areas as well, where children have excelled in alternate sports like Karate, Kabaddi and Judo, to name a few.