Swades Foundation

CULTURE/SOCIAL

Swades Foundation unveils new Identity

by Prashant Kapadia

 Rural Empowerment through 360 degree development

·         Founded by Ronnie Screwvala and Zarina Mehta, Swades Foundation operates with the single-minded focus of empowering Rural India

·         Operating for the last 20 years as SHARE; the foundation in the last 5 years alone has provided 39,000 people in 139 villages in rural Maharashtra with safe drinking water

·         Swades Foundation’s mission is to create a permanent and irreversible change for good in the lives of 1 million people in ruralIndia in the next 5 years

Mumbai, October 14th, 2012:   Founders Ronnie Screwvala and Zarina Mehta today unveiled the new logo of their Foundation – Swades, earlier operating under the brand name SHARE(Society to Heal Aid Restore Educate). Subscribing to the belief that India cannot rise to its true potential without the fundamental transformation of the lives of people in rural India, Swades  is dedicated towards the empowerment of rural India by adopting a holistic, 360 degrees development approach, encompassing interventions across Water & Sanitation, Agriculture &Livelihood,  Health and Education.

The launch of the new identity of Swades Foundation was supported by Ranbir Kapoor, Farah Khan & Ashutosh Govarikarwho along with deliberating on issues facing rural India and possible solutions, rewarded the exemplary work done by Swades Foundation’s Women Self Help Groups.

Four Self Help Group Women from Swades Foundation, namely Mata Ramai (18 members), Somjai (18 members), Jijau (12 members) and Nageshwari (18 members) were felicitated for the outstanding work done by them in the field.  These four groups, through their consistent work, have created a not only created a high level of trust amongst members, built financial and social stability, facilitated linkages to banks but also shown a high degree of involvement in identifying livelihood opportunities for their people.

At the press conference today, Ronnie Screwvala, Founder & Trustee asked, “As the world moves towards mass urbanization, my question is can India create a new model of rich sustainable Rural Economy?”

“The answer lies in harnessing the approximately 70% rural population of our country and empowering them to become a key driver for India’s future growth.  The gap between the fortunate and the underprivileged has to be bridged. While we know that transformation is possible we are looking for answers to questions like - "What does it take to bring change into the lives of the many impoverished people around us?" Heroism alone isn't enough. Neither is money.  I believe the only real solution is a strong system of Private Public Partnerships between Government, Corporate India and the NGO’s where each brings its unique strengths to play. At Swades, we have created a strategy to execute programmes that enable us to create sustainable changes and allow us to exit a geography and move onto the next ones. We hope to create a new model of development for others to build on”, adds Ronnie.

The foundation has crafted a unique strategy which is to Engage, Execute, Empower and Exit with the belief that it will be a key driver in enabling their communities with the capability of transforming their own lives.

“Our new logo, the new identity of Swades, is a inspired by the sun – an energy force which gifts life into all of nature, asking for nothing in return”, says Zarina Mehta, Managing Trustee, Swades Foundation at the unveil. 

“At Swades, we believe that for India to achieve its true potential we need to empower our village communities. We are also of the firm belief that empowerment can truly happen when interventions are 360 degrees and all–encompassing, therefore our areas of work involve Water & Sanitation, Agriculture & Livelihood, Health and Education”, adds Mehta.

Swades Foundation is a 72 people strong professionally run organisation with Praveen Aggarwal at the helm as the Chief Operating Officer.  With 26 years of experience in Business Management and Corporate Affairs in large Indian and global organizations, Praveen’s last assignment was with Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages as Chief of Corporate Affairs and headed the CSR & Sustainability function of Coca-Cola India & South West Asia.

Swades Foundation, in the first phase, is set upon on a mission of positively impacting 1 million lives in Rural India over the next 5 years. During this time, the foundation has planned an outlay of close to INR 700 Crore of which 350 Crore will be invested by the foundation and the remaining 350 Crore will be raised through donors.

Founded by Ronnie Screwvala with Zarina Mehta as its Managing Trustee, the Swades Foundation operates with the single minded-focus of empowering Rural India. Swades aims at bringing together the best global practices, corporate thinking and accountability, the highest standards of corporate governance and transparency to create a model of operation which is a benchmark in the industry.  Operating for the last 20 years as SHARE; in the last 5 years alone it has provided 39,000 people in 139 villages in ruralMaharashtra with drinking water and made inroads into livelihood, education and health. We have created 276 Women’s SHG (Self Help Groups) with 3900 members and 111 famers Groups (1500 members)