Hyderabad: HYSEA forum helps techies volunteer for social causes

Hyderabad: HYSEA (Hyderabad Software Exporters Association) organised the 4th CSR Summit at HICC on Thursday. The theme for this year's summit was 'Volunteer to make a difference.'It explored volunteering opportunities for corporate employees in three key areas: Education, Environment and Health & Well-being.

While many corporate employees want to contribute to the society, they often do not know where or how to start or are concerned about balancing work, home and society. The summit threw light on different avenues available to volunteers who got an opportunity to interact with several participating NGOs in the EXPO.

Paul Raddon, Head of Operations, Global Service Centers, HSBC, said, "Giving back to the society is at the core of HSBC corporate philosophy and a way of life at GSC India. HSBC has launched more than 70 projects benefiting over 2.94 million people, and HSBC Skills for Life, a INR 100 crore flagship initiative is benefitting 1.3 million.

Over 21,400 beneficiaries have got access to WASH facilities across 17 villages in India and more than 3100 youths trained and employed in the last year, despite the pandemic", he said.

Delivering the mentor note,Venkatesh Murthy, Founder & Chief Mentor, Youth for Seva, said, "Employee volunteering programs, if well designed, can be very impactful. I hope HYSEA will provide a model for collaboration and co-creation of effective volunteering programs in Telangana".

Earlier Bharani K Aroll, President, HYSEA, said, "This year we have added one more important focus area, 'Health and Well-being,' where our CSR Forum volunteers will focus on projects related to livelihood creation, poverty alleviation, housing, women empowerment, child development, and infrastructure creation."HYSEA, he said, in collaboration with other Industry bodies in Hyderabad channelled around Rs 100 crore from the IT industry through a campaign called 'IT4TS towards procurement of medical infrastructure for CoVID relief activities".

Manisha Saboo, AVP and DC Head, Infosys Pocharam Campus&HYSEA CSR Forum Leader, said, "We aspire to make volunteering as a way to build cohesive society." She invited NGOs, corporates and Volunteers to make use of HYSEA Volunteering platform https://volunteer.hysea.in, an end-to-end solution for volunteering.

Some of the prominent speakers at the summit included: Dr. Christina Z Chongthu, IAS, Secretary - Tribal Welfare Dept, Govt of Telangana, Divya Devarajan, IAS, Secretary & Commissioner Women & Child Welfare Department, Govt of Telangana, Priyanka Varghese, IFS, Special Officer on Duty, CM's Office, Dr. Rajeev Vijay Kumar Menon, Consultant Cardiologist, AIG Hospitals, Vikas Gupta, MD, Talent, Deloitte, Krishna Deevi, Head of CSR, CYIENT, Gunaranjan P, Founder of YouSee (United Care Development Services), Ramesh Kaza, SVP & Chief Information Officer, State Street, Vinay Agrawal, Global. Head, Business HR, Tech Mahindra, Konda Srikanth, Founder & President,Sparity – NGO, Kalpana Ramesh, Founder, Blue Hyderabad Project & Water Warrior, Nitu Narula, Chief of Staff for Experiences + Devices, Microsoft IDC.

Chief guest Pullela Gopichand, Chief National Coach, India Badminton Team, gave away the prestigious HYSEA CSR AWARDS. Nine companies were awarded in three different categories for Innovative and Path breaking initiatives in the areas of Education, Environment and Health & Well-being.

He congratulatedthose striving for the development of needy. "Our country has a lot of potential and volunteering is one of the best ways to harness the same," he said.