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Shaping the future of software driven business
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“The Persistent Foundation completes a decade
of commitment towards society.” These words
ring in my ears and fill me with gratitude, humility,
satisfaction, contentment, and also pride. Looking
back, I take immense pleasure in all the work that
we have been able to accomplish in this period of
a decade. I am able to measure the impact that
we have achieved because most of it has been
tangible. This decade has certainly been one of
learning and experimenting, and one of tremendous
personal growth.
Over the last ten years, we have come a long
way towards fulfilling our Corporate Social
Responsibility. We started out taking tentative steps
which have now become bigger, bolder, and more
confident. These steps were in the right direction,
which has been endorsed by the findings of the
Impact Assessment Study. Our Charter consists
of three focus areas — Health, Education, and
Community Development, which were decided
upon after research and discussions with the
Board of Trustees.
We decided to take up Health as our focus area to
be able to provide healthcare facilities to people for
whom going to the doctor is the lowest priority. We
started out with doing Breast Cancer screenings
for women, health check ups for school children,
and distribution of spectacles to senior citizens.
Ten years later, we have progressed to providing
artificial limbs to physically disabled individuals,
helping them become useful members to their
families. Getting cleft lip and palate repair surgeries
done on babies born with this disfigurement and
being able to give them an opportunity to enter
mainstream society after being shunned, has
been a very emotionally fulfilling experience. The
cataract surgeries on senior citizens have helped
give them a new lease of life. The specialized
pediatric surgeries, dialysis sessions, a blood bank,
breast cancer treatment for women, and mobile
medicare vans in villages are some of the many
medical services we have been able to provide. Our
work done with school children shows improved
health parameters, better attendance in class, and
more concentration in general.
Education is a field in which the more you do, the
more you need to do. We began with sponsoring
the education of school students and awarding
scholarships to girls to pursue their engineering
degrees. These programs have blossomed into our
biggest andmost successful ones till date. Alongwith
providing financial support, we are now also able to
provide guidance, training, and mentorship to these
students, thus helping in their holistic progress
and development. These interventions have shown
better and improved scholastic performances of
school students. The girls show excellent results
in placements and future career prospects. The
concept of Study Centers has been pioneered by
us. With our intervention, students are able to study
better and improve their academic scores. These
results have indeed been very encouraging for us.
Pune is surrounded by villages. Hence, Community
Development was an obvious thought. Over the
last decade, we have been able to construct wells
for easy access to drinking water. We have also
empowered the farmers and the local population
to help build check dams and widen and deepen
Message from the
Chairperson
Corporate Social Responsibility