Diwali celebration 2016 at the RBS premises at Eco-World Bellandur was a unique affair. An inclusive celebration where the organisers took every effort to ensure that the beneficiaries of their fund raising programmes enjoyed themselves and were treated like the special guests of honour.
We have consciously worked towards building a CSR team that is personally committed to the cause of the underprivileged, says Manoranjan Patra, IT Programme Manager and Lead RBS Disha (CSR employee engagement initiatives).
Employees of RBS Bangalore thus came together to celebrate their annual Diwali party with the children from 3 institutions, one of which was students who are part of One Good Step’s “Streets to Schools” initiative for bringing back street children into mainstream education.
The primary focus of this initiative was to expose young children from underprivileged backgrounds to a corporate office. Simultaneously Disha team also saw it as an opportunity to create awareness and sensitize employees to the needs of these young children.
The children were offered a platform to showcase their skills. They were overjoyed and kept the audience enthralled with their moves. As good hosts, the RBS employees too performed for their very special young guests.
Manoranjan Patra says that his team was completely overwhelmed with the exemplary behavior and social etiquette displayed by the children. He describes this interaction as a learning experience that reinforced his belief that all children deserve equal opportunities.
Besides the scope for interaction between the children and employees of RBS, team Disha had designed the programme to encourage staff to make purchases at the stalls in the premises. Raffle tickets were sold to employees. Every employee was permitted to use the entire value of these tickets to make purchases from the stalls.
Each institution was permitted to put up one stall at the premises. One Good Step along with Vimarsha Charitable Trust had also set up a stall where products made by special students were displayed for purchase. While employees came forward to make purchases from these stalls, the children in the stalls were extremely excited to see the positive response to products created by them.
The programme concluded with lunch and the young children went back with wonderful memories.
It was a truly “Happy Diwali” for these less privileged children and they left with new aspirations for their future.