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M3M Foundation to plant one million trees through VrikshArpan Initiative
Jayashankar Menon CISF, COVID-19, Dr Payal Knodia, iMpower, M3M Foundation, M3M Group, Sakshar, Sarvodya, VrikshArpan	0 Comment October 30, 2020
M3M Foundation has kick-started its unique environmental campaign to plant 1 million trees within 3 years. It has collaborated with Plantology, a self-funded organization that is committed to increasing green cover in India, for implementation of this campaign in Manesar.
About 25,000 trees have been planted at NSG Manesar. Approximately 15,000 trees have been planted at CISF, Hyderabad, 10,000 at Army Base, Meerut. About 15,617 trees were also planted at Bemta village, Sundargarh district in Odisha in the first phase and around 1200 have been planted in Gurugram.
The initiative coincides with COVID-19 that underscored the significance of sustainability and maintaining a harmonious co-existence with nature. The marginalized and vulnerable section of the society has been hardest hit by the pandemic due to joblessness, lack of access to proper hygiene and nutrition and abject poverty.
'VrikshArpan aligns with United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals- 12, 13 and 15 by 2030 and India's vision of increasing total area under green cover to 33%.
"Tree plantation entails a plethora of benefits for people at the grassroot level and is a key to heralding socio-economic change in rural India. The initiative will also sensitize the local community on the significance of protecting environment. As a responsible organization, we are committed to augmenting government efforts to address the challenges of environmental degradation and climate change," said Dr. Payal Kanodia, Trustee, M3M Foundation.
M3M Foundation, the philanthropic arm of M3M Group; is working towards bringing an equitable development for attaining a brighter India. Education, environment, health, disaster management and socio-economic development are its key areas. The Foundation believes in taking an innovative approach to address social issues by developing a self- sustained program.
Recently, the Haryana Government inked MoU with M3M Foundation to facilitate students' online preparation for government jobs. The MoU aligns with Haryana government's vision to link one lakh candidates to government jobs in two years.
In the past year, the Foundation has undertaken many initiatives in this direction. It has launched 'iMpower' an education and skill-development initiative that aims to build a community-led Worksite Upliftment Programme for construction workers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it launched a project called 'Kartavya' to provide food and essential sanitation items to construction workers and families. To date, it has helped two lakhs of stranded people with ration and other essentials. It is reaching out to 3000 people daily under the project.
In the area of education, its work includes disbursal of liberal scholarships under its project 'Sakshar' to the financially deprived students, and empowering the marginalized section of the society with basic digital literacy skills. In another initiative called 'Sarvodya', M3M Foundation plans to support and facilitate 13 villages of Orissa to become self-sustainable in the next three years.