Mondelez India’s ‘Shubh Aarambh’ To Adress Development Needs Of Children

Mondelez India Foods Private Ltd. (formerly known as Cadbury India Ltd.) today announced its national community initiative ‘Shubh Aarambh’ to address the development needs of children by promoting healthy and active lives.

The CSR programme is expected to impact close to 200,000 beneficiaries across 5 states over the next three years. Shubh Aarambh will be initially activated in 65 villages across the states of Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu – around the company’s manufacturing and cocoa operations. The company has partnered with NGOs Save the Children and Magic Bus to develop a unique delivery to implement this multi-pronged and multi-year programme in India. The programme is supported by the Mondelez International Foundation in addition to local funding.

Shubh Aarambh is designed to address children across the age groups of 0-6, 7-14 and youth from 15-18 and will have a holistic approach to development. Working alongside parents, educators and community health workers, the programme aims to improve nutrition and health, encourage sports and play, deliver development messages, provide access to fresh foods through kitchen gardens, train youth leaders, encourage and support education and skills development.

Chandramouli Venkatesan, Managing Director, Mondelez India Private Foods Ltd., said, “Shubh Aarambh is symbolic of new beginnings for young children and youth in the communities in which we operate. As a company, we believe good values and good business go hand in hand and we hope to see Shubh Aarambh gaining acceptance and growing over the years into a programme that has made a real difference to communities and achieved key development goals. Our vision is that Shubh Aarambh will create a long term grassroots sustainable which will build communities of healthy, educated and productive young people. Given the importance of India to Mondelez International, we are delighted to receive initial funding from our global foundation for the next three years to build and sustain the programme.”

Thomas Chandy, CEO, Save the Children said, “I am excited about the newly launched partnership between Mondelez India, Magic Bus and Save the Children as it represents yet another wonderful opportunity to positively impact the lives of children in India. This unique collaborative effort, through its focus on active play and good nutrition, will help to create an environment that fosters the all-round development of children and their families. We at Save the Children are proud to be a part of and to contribute to the creation of such an initiative.”

Pratik Kumar, CEO, Magic Bus said, “We are very happy to be part of Mondelez India’s initiative to better our children’s nutrition and active life. Magic Bus’s work is centered around changing children, youth and communities’ behaviors and skills such that they learn how to grow up healthy. The focus on active play is an underserved cause in Indian communities. We are very hopeful that our partnership with Mondelez India will help us in making sure children living in some of India’s poorest areas stay healthy and grow up well.” Shubh Aarambh has a multi-pronged approach and will include programmes targeting:

– Mothers and their children in the age group of 0-6 for early healthcare, nutrition and health education – thereby impacting young children.

– Children in the age group of 7-14 to promote physical and sports activities, nutrition education and positive social and life skills.

– Youth in the age group of 15-18 trained to become peer leaders to build a sustainable, active and healthy community.

– Community to build awareness and knowledge of affordable nutrient rich fruits, vegetables and establishment of kitchen gardens.