Bringing smiles to many faces

BHUBANESWAR: STUDENT LIFE opens up many possibilities to explore. There are some who wait and grab oppportunities and there are others who consider these opportunities as waste of time.  Team Aarohan with nine students from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar certainly belongs to the former category and prefer to tread the path of philanthropy - to give a humane face to business at a time when many still believe that management studies is all about numbers and profit-making.

Aarohan - A step ahead, tagged up with Open Learning Systems (OLS), Chandrasekharpur to bring qualitative changes in the lives of differently-abled people. OLS is an organisation working for children with cerebral palsy, autism or with developmental delays in sensory, motor, language, social, and emotional areas. These kids, 250 day-boarders and 40 residential care students, are imparted vocational training by OLS in preparing environment friendly stationary items, bakery products, chocolates and tailoring. Marketing skills met the intellectual skills of the special children of OLS and the tie up augured good for both making the bond stronger.

It started with the marketing drives of OLS’s in-house products like hand-made chocolates, cards and other handicrafts across the corporate houses (Mahindra Satyam, Fortune Towers) present in and around Bhubaneswar. The effort received an overwhelming response and the quality of the products was commended at various forums, says Subhra Arabinda Mohanty of the group. “Being an MBA from XIMB is not all about profits and bottom lines. It is also about learning the business of making people happier and live better”, he adds.

The team organised an activity day on OLS campus on August 30, 2010 wherein competitions were organised among the children. The prize distribution ceremony was attended by the Dean of XIMB, Father Tony Uvary, CEO of OLS Prakash Kumar Rath and CSR-in-Charge of Mahindra Satyam Rashmi Mohanty.

The team is now looking forward to establish a permanent marketing network and arrange funding for some essential items at OLS by holding discussion with retail giants like Reliance, said Rath. ‘’The students of XIM-B have internalised and channelised their marketing skills by studying the intellectually challenged children’s environment and then putting forth their views in the corporate sector,’’ he said.

Team Aarohan members -- Subhra, Shrestha, Sneha, Rishi, Harendra, Abhishek Nanda, Abhishek Pattnaik, Meenakshi and Aditya Vikram -- wish to see these children get absorbed in the mainstream of society and lead an independent life.

mlalita@expressbuzz.com