Zydus Wellness joins hands with Akshaya Patra

Zydus Wellness Ltd. has joined forces with The Akshaya Patra Foundation for their new campaign 'Donate Your Calories to Help Nourish Children', run through their substitute brand, Sugar Free.

Sugar Free acts as an alternative to sugar for health conscious people who are concerned about their calories. This campaign takes these ‘unwanted calories’ that are saved by consuming Sugar Free and converts them to ‘useful calories’ through a monetary contribution to Akshaya Patra.

This campaign was devised keeping in mind the huge chasm between people who struggle with excess weight, as against the millions of under nourished people in India. The money donated to Akshaya Patra through the campaign will be used to bridge this gap by providing more children with the tasty, nutritious mid-day meal on every school day.

The campaign was kick started in Mumbai all over the country in the presence of celebrities like Akshay Kumar (Bollywood actor), Sanjeev Kapoor (Master Chef), Tisca Chopra (actress), along with Ganesh Nayak (ED and COO, Zydus Cadila) and Elkana Ezekiel (MD, Zydus Wellness Ltd).

Describing why the campaign is crucial, ED and COO Ganesh Nayak said, “While a large proportion of India had excess calorie consumption leading to a state of weight gain, an even larger proportion did not have a nutritious meal every day. There was thus a state of calorie imbalance. In partnership with Akshaya Patra, we designed this campaign around Sugar Free to create a calorie balance by donating the calories saved by Sugar Free consumers to undernourished children, through the mid- day meal program which targets school children."

Zydus Wellness made a token contribution of 5 million calories towards The Akshaya Patra Foundation at the launch of the campaign, to be monetised later.

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Feed the hungry – Fighting malnutrition in India

 

Today malnutrition is an epidemic that affects people in every corner of the world. Predominantly found in third world countries, malnutrition prevents nations struggling to evolve from making progress. India is one of the developing countries that struggle greatly with the issue of malnutrition amongst its population, especially amongst the children.

There are 400 million children residing in India, and of this staggering figure every second child is malnourished.

Malnutrition in children primarily occurs as result of poverty and illiteracy.  Parents who have never had the opportunity to attend school find it difficult to maintain regular, reliable jobs to keep their family financially secure. Without access to enough money to even provide for the family’s basic nutritional needs, children grow up malnourished themselves. They in turn have to take up child labour to support the family at the cost of their education, and the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition continues.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation works to combat malnutrition and illiteracy in children through their mid-day meal programme. By providing children with nutritious, tasty food in sufficient quantities, Akshaya Patra has succeeded in bringing children back to school, and improving their health in one move.

Studies of the Akshaya Patra mid-day meal have shown that by regular access to the healthy meals children have shown better concentration and academic progress, increased school enrollment and attendance, better nutrition status and reduced school drop-out rates.

It is important for every able person to lend their time, attention and resources to stop this cycle of poverty and malnutrition plaguing the innocent children of India. To help The Akshaya Patra Foundation provide food for education and eliminate classroom hunger, click to donate online.

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Support Akshaya Patra at the Mastek Cause-A-Thon 2014!

 What’s better than running for exercise? Running for a cause! Show your support for The Akshaya Patra Foundation at the Mastek Cause-A-Thon 2014 scheduled to be held in Kharghar, Mumbai on 28th  September. Come cheer the participants as they run for the cause of alleviating poverty.

Mastek Foundation which organises the annual marathon has this year partnered with The Akshaya Patra Foundation to help spread awareness of the work Akshaya Patra does, and work towards providing food and education to the children in need.

All the proceeds collected through the sale of tickets and sponsorship by the Mastek Cause-A-Thon will be donated to The Akshaya Patra Foundation and used to implement the organisation’s projects. These will be eligible for the tax saving 80G certificate.

Mastek Foundation has always been actively involved in creating awareness campaigns targeted at improving welfare in community life. They have frequently partnered with non profit organisations like The Akshaya Patra Foundation to bring greater knowledge, following and publicity to the work being undertaken.

The Mastek Cause-A-Thon will be held at the following details:

Central Park – Kharghar, Mumbai

28 September, 2014

Time: 7.00 a.m. onward

In case of any inquiries, email:

Vijay Sapaliga - vijay.sapaliga@mastek.com | +91-9773768435

Jashosree Sen - jashosree.sen@mastek.com | +91-93930892592

Write in at: mastekfoundation@mastek.com

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an Indian non-profit organisation that runs the world’s largest school feeding programme. Reaching out to over 1.4 million children a day, across 10,661 government schools in 23 locations and 10 states of India, Akshaya Patra is on a mission to feed 5 million children by 2020. To contribute to this cause, click to Donate Online

Follow us: @AkshayaPatra on Twitter | TheAkshayapatraFoundation on Facebook |

 @AkshayaPatraFoundation on Rediff