BA gifts Rs 1.25 cr to NGO

MUMBAI, June 20: British Airways (BA) has gifted the NGO Pratham a cheque of Rs 1.24 crores for educational enhancement at the primary educ...

MUMBAI, June 20: British Airways (BA) has gifted the NGO Pratham a cheque of Rs 1.24 crores for educational enhancement at the primary education level. This is in support of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) new educational programme in collaboration with Pratham.

Said the general manager for South Asia, BA, Kevin Steele, the contribution is part of the airways’ celebration package for fifty years of Indian freedom.

The programme is scheduled for the next three years, informed executive secretary, Pratham, Dr Madhav Chavan. The UNICEF will oversee the implemenatation of the programme.

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However, detailed plans on the exact nature of expenditure are yet to be chalked out. Additional municipal commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said “I have yet to get a break-up from Pratham. If the emphasis is on expanding balwadis to 1500 from their present 400 for poor children this year, the BMC schools will then not be involved. "If the focus is on joyful education, then BMC schools will adequately benefit out of it.”

The cash amount is the single largest contribution made by any single organisation to Pratham, and the first by a multi-national company. It is also the largest grant from the British Airways’ `Change for Good’ Programme ever made to any one single programme.

The director of sales worldwide, Peter White, presented the cheque to the municipal commissioner, Girish Gokhale, also a trustee on the Pratham Board.

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