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New Delhi, Delhi, India
Coca-Cola India along with American India Foundation (AIF) today launched the SMS Mission Recycling with the aim to sensitize children from over 5000 schools on waste management after realizing a successful Support My School (SMS) Mission 1000 schools. The project seeks to contribute towards the government’s cleanliness mission and will focus on proper collection and segregation of waste including Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET).
The SMS Mission Recycling initiative aims to promote better waste management practices through adoption of efficient collection and segregation methods to facilitate recycling. Aligned to the Government’s Swachh Bharat and Swachh Vidyalaya (Clean India Clean Schools) Mission. The programme will look to set up or facilitate waste management systems in communities as well as schools. In the first phase of the program, Coca-Cola India has partnered with the American India Foundation (AIF) to positively impact an estimated 11 lakh children in over 5000 government schools nationwide and over 1 lakh community members on the long-term benefits of proper solid waste management.
Nishant Pandey, CEO of American India Foundation said, “Building on our experience of driving awareness of sanitation & hygiene issues across schools in India, we believe that engaging students with waste management and recycling concepts will give them a deeper understanding of the huge role that sustainability plays in our future. We’re excited to partner with Coca-Cola on the Support My School – Mission Recycling campaign which aims to reach 5000 schools across 10 states in order to give children the chance to build a cleaner tomorrow and a sustainable future.”
T. Krishnakumar, President, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, said, “We believe that sustainable development should be at the heart of everything that we do and we must collaborate with our partners to find and develop solutions for a sustainable future. We are now excited to launch SMS Mission Recycling in association with American India Foundation to create awareness among school children and communities on proper ways to implement waste segregation and recycling. Children are change agents for a better tomorrow. They have the influence to sensitize their communities and as the future of our country, they grow up aligned to such environmental causes.”
The first edition of Support My School had a positive impact on over 3.5 lakh school children in more than 1000 schools across the country. During this journey, thousands of toilets, urinals and wash stations were revitalised and hundreds of playgrounds were established in disadvantaged schools. Support My School addressed the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) needs and contributed meaningfully to the government’s ‘Swachh Bharat’ drive, and the revitalized schools now serve as model schools in several districts.
Avijeet Kumar, Chief Operational Officer, Charities Aid Foundation (CAF)—the first implementation partner of SMS Mission 1000 said, “Support My School is an innovative campaign aimed at transforming lives of thousands of children across the country and we are extremely proud to be associated with it. From educating children about rain water harvesting, to ensuring access to proper sanitation, the campaign has helped promoting positive environment in schools. Interventions such as these are important to address the broad socio-economic gap and educational inequalities in our country. The impact seen in 1000 schools through this campaign has been extremely satisfying.”
Bhushan Tuladhar, Regional Technical Advisor, South Asia – UN-HABITAT said, “Our congratulations to all partners and friends of the Support My School (SMS) campaign for achieving “SMS Mission 1000”. It is remarkable that the campaign has reached over 4, 00,000 students across 1100 schools in the region. We look forward to support the next phase of the initiative – SMS Mission Recycling.”
Coca-Cola India is relentlessly working on creating a positive difference in the state of school education and the company has an unabated focus on sustainability.
