The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Celebrity support for ‘Shiksha’ 08

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Saturday, Apr 05, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Celebrity support for ‘Shiksha’ 08

Staff Reporter

Towards providing education to underprivileged children

— Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

Reaching out: Actor Ramya Krishnan, dancer Anita Ratnam and P&G District Manager M.S. Lakshminarasimhan at the launch of `Shiksha’ 08 in Chennai on Thursday.

CHENNAI: Actor Ramya Krishnan and dancer Anita Ratnam on Thursday pledged their support to the cause of providing education for underprivileged children.

The event was the launch of ‘Shiksha’08, a National Consumer Movement’, an initiative of Procter and Gamble (P&G), in partnership with Child Rights and You (CRY), in which consumers purchasing select products of the company in bulk would guarantee a portion of the sales for various projects.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Krishnan wished that more Indians would join the initiative to reach out to more children and eventually lead to a situation where such initiatives would not be needed.

Ms. Ratnam said there was a lack of civic consciousness among people and urged those living in urban areas to ensure that the children of economically weak households, such as those of domestic help and security guards, received good education.

The two celebrities joined CRY General Manager (Resource Mobilisation) Ruchi Mathur and P&G India District Manager M.S. Lakshminarasimhan in signing on a giant map of India and showing their commitment to the cause.

Mr. Lakshminarasimhan said over the past four years, over 67,000 children had benefited from the project with a donation of over Rs.4 crore. This year, irrespective of sales of the products, the company had committed to provide a minimum of Rs.1 crore to CRY for various projects.

Valuable contribution

Ms. Mathur said this was a project in which individuals could contribute to the country’s development, even if it were in a small way.

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