Newstrack

Help worth a dollar

Carlson Hotels Worldwide partner with Plan India to help deprived children

Jyoti Verma - Mumbai

It took K B Kachru 18 months of thorough research to crack a new deal and get a partner for it. Now, the new deal makes him step out of the plush environment of the Radisson Hotel in Gurgaon and reach out to the many little hands busy making tea at the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station in Delhi. The partner, Plan India, promises even more. "We would like to help support a literacy initiative for children living at Port of Mumbai, a night shelter for working and street children in Varanasi, and a project to educate and provide vocational training to children in fishing communities of Andhra Pradesh," says the executive vice-president, South Asia, Carlson Hotels Worldwide.

All in all, the latest social initiative by the Carlson group and Plan India, an NGO working for children in adverse circumstances, aims to work towards ensuring basic rights to underprivileged children in society. The joint effort, 'Dream on Wheels', will initially focus on four projects to ensure rights of children and prevent instances of child labour. Efforts will be made to make the surroundings healthy for them even though they live on the platforms of Hazrat Nizamuddin, Faridabad, Agra and Mathura. 'Doorsteps School' is a literacy initiative for children in a community living at Port of Mumbai. "To cater to these diverse needs concerning children, we will work with like-minded people - whether corporate houses or individuals," explains Roland Angerer, director, Plan India.

As per the new initiative, Rs 40 at every guest check-out at all the Radisson Hotels & Resorts and Country Inns & Suites properties (run by the hospitality group) in India will go towards the mission. "The monetary contribution would be from the Group with every hotel generating as much as it can. Besides, we have devised ways to encourage our customers to do their bit. Postcards, tent cards and donation boxes would be kept in the hotels to cheer every walk-in for the cause," adds Kachru.

The thought of encouraging travellers to feel for the cause and implement it at the organisational level has come from the parent group, says Ramesh Kapur, MD, Radisson Hotel Delhi. "Carlson Hotels has been promoting the concept of healthy childhood with bodies like the World Childhood Foundation. Now we have Plan India to take the mission ahead," he says.

So if Carlson group has something to show, Plan India too looks for more. Angerer believes Indian hotels must take social causes with seriousness. "Beyond extending monetary support, one can organise fund-raising meals at one's hotel or join a good cause taken by the other. Looking at our new partnership, we believe others would also join in," he says.