'One Day for Change': DAN employees do their bit, reach out to 2,500 kids

To execute the project 'Champions for Children' for the third time, 1,500 DAN employees engaged in their social responsibility programme 'One day for change' and did their bit through social service activities

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | June 6, 2016

Ashish Bhasin

On June 3, 2016, 1,500 DAN employees spent time with 2,500 children across offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Kochi to execute the project, 'Champions for Children.' It was the third edition of Dentsu Aegis Network's (DAN) corporate social responsibility programme, 'One day for change,' (ODFC). In India, the key focus of the ODFC programme was held across four categories – digital, education, health and entertainment.

As part of the digital push, employees of the network's Delhi office visited Kushi Rainbow Girls Home to donate laptops and conduct sessions on excel and IT skills. They also visited the Earth Saviours Foundation and interacted with more than 300 mentally challenged children.

In Mumbai, DAN touched the lives of 1,100 kids across nine child welfare organisations. The DAN employees also created a fun fair for more than 200 children suffering from various forms of cancer to entertain them all through the day. Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was the chief guest at the event at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai.

The company also arranged an educational excursion for 100 underprivileged children, supported by Umang Foundation, to Nehru Science Centre, Worli. Additionally, the group set up a dental health check-up camp at Madras Wadi, a slum area near Worli, where 300 children turned up.

The network was sub-divided into teams of 20-50 in Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Kochi. Each team visited a particular child welfare shelter to execute a variety of creative workshops.

Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai also tied up with various hospitals and NGOs to organise blood donation drives for kids with thalassemia and cancer. Over 250 bottles of blood were donated by DAN staff across all regions.

Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO, South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network, said, “One Day For Change is extremely important to us at Dentsu Aegis Network. It gives all our employees an opportunity to give back to the society, as a team. More important than what we volunteer in kind and cash is the time we all volunteer together. We hope to continue many of these activities throughout the year. It really feels good, as a team, to be able to do our bit.”

ODFC is an annual social commitment by the Dentsu Aegis Network, where employees from each of the countries are encouraged to go out and volunteer on the same day.

Last year, over 800 employees volunteered in India, contributing 2,200 staff hours. While the final numbers are still trickling in, it is estimated that in 2016 in India 1,500 employees volunteered over 6,000 staff hours for the ODFC initiative.

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