Business Wire India
WPP Foundation, the CSR entity of WPP in India, has been recognised at the International CSR Excellence Awards, UK as the CSR World Leader 2020. This international accolade recognises WPP Foundation’s outstanding contribution to the Indian society in the field of education and skill development through its flagship program- Education to Livelihood (E2L) and WPP Foundation’s work with the under-served communities.

The International CSR Excellence Awards was set up 8 years ago to recognise international organisations that support their workforce and the communities they work in. They recognise that it is now more important than ever to improve the world for future generations by building a better and cohesive society. The illustrious event was held at the House of Commons in London and saw an overwhelming response from corporates from varied sectors across the globe.

Speaking on the award win, Rama Iyer, Director General, WPP Foundation, said, “This is a defining moment for us, as we are a young organization aiming to create a model for large scale impact.

We measure our success by the number of doors we open for the children we support and smiles that we put onto their faces.

We are humbled by this global win – but like we’ve always said, the real winners here are our children.”

WPP Foundation has worked towards nurturing the children they work with by upskilling them and their communities through its flagship programme, Education to Livelihood (E2L). Over the last three years, the Foundation has focused on bringing about behavioural change, improving learning outcomes and strengthening the employability of children, hence driving positive impact in society. Working with 10 schools across varied communities of urban, peri-urban and rural India, WPP Foundation has served almost 20,000 children over a period of 7 years.
About the WPP India CSR Foundation

WPP is a creative transformation company that builds better futures for its clients through the integrated services of communications, experience, commerce and technology. WPP in India launched WPP India CSR Foundation in 2015. The vision is to help 20,000 under-served children and youth in achieving their true potential in their education and careers. WPP Foundation is committed to a common CSR vision of opening doors for every child and youth from vulnerable and marginalised communities through our holistic child development programmes that focus on education, life skills, and job-readiness training. For more information, visit www.wppindiafoundation.com

Journey of the WPP India CSR Foundation

WPP India CSR Foundation strives to bring about a social change through its flagship Education to Livelihood programme (E2L). Addressing key focus areas—retention in school, poor learning outcomes, work skilling and deep-rooted social norms, the E2L programme has been providing interventions and resources to approx. 20,000 first-generation learners from 11- 18 years. Currently, the programme is running in 10 underserved schools across the Mumbai and Delhi-NCR region. Through strategic partnerships with best-of-breed social organizations, the E2L programme takes an evidence-based approach in developing frameworks to facilitate successful implementation.

The Foundation’s key initiatives include improving educational outcomes in literacy and numeracy, with a focus on opening young minds to the world of digital innovation. The Foundation also inculcates in youth a sense of confidence and gender equality as well as train their mindsets and habits for future livelihoods, through counselling, sport, dance and music.

To ensure retention among the youth they support, they provide access to health education and health services.

In a remarkably short span, the E2L program has been able to:

• Help over 70% of children secure their future through employment or higher education
• Reduce dropout rates to less than 3%
• Initiate better health standards
• Double the ability of coding
• Reduce gender discrimination
• Increase literacy & numeracy
• Increase confidence levels