Mumbai: Habitat for Humanity India held a Corporate Social Responsibility Dialogue in association with the American Chamber of Commerce in India in the city today. Thomas L. Vajda, Consul General, U.S. Consulate General, Mumbai was the Guest of Honour for the event. The key note address was delivered given by Rick Hathaway, Vice-President for Asia Pacific, Habitat for Humanity International and Rajan Samuel, Managing Director, Habitat for Humanity India.
The objective of this meeting was to explore partnerships and collaborations to provide an opportunity for the AmCham members of developing a district or a village in India holistically by building homes and sanitation units under Habitat’s ImPact 50-50 strategy. The focus of the discussion was on affordable housing, water and sanitation while integrating education, livelihood and healthcare for the betterment of the underprivileged.
Thomas Vajda, Consul General, U.S. Consulate General, Mumbai said, “It is exciting to see how many American companies are active in CSR across a broad range of sectors in India. Today’s event was a superb opportunity to explore ways that U.S. corporates can have tremendous positive impact on underprivileged communities across India.”
Rick Hathaway, Vice-President for Asia Pacific, Habitat for Humanity International ,addressed the audience via a video message. “Corporate Social Responsibility can play a pivotal role in impacting socio-economic transformation in India. Thanks to its corporate partners Habitat India has served over 900,000 families in the areas of decent shelter, sanitation and disaster response. But there is so much more to do. We need the corporate India to support our work in a big way in order to realise the mission of Housing for All and scale up the impact multifold.”
Rajan Samuel, Managing Director, Habitat for Humanity India said, “At Habitat, we believe that every person deserves a decent place to live. Stable housing is foundational to building a better life. Providing housing solutions has a direct contribution to strengthening a country’s economy. We appeal to corporates to come forward and support Habitat’s ImPact 50-50 strategy as part of your CSR initiatives.”
Representatives from companies such as Dow Chemicals, Cognizant, Deloitte, KPMG, UPS took part in the CSR dialogue that was targeted at the AmCham members in the Western Region. The thought behind the entire meeting was to offer AmCham members with an active opportunity to participate in nation building by impacting the underprivileged communities in need through CSR interventions.