Chennai, NFAPost: Magic Bus has joined hands with Barclays India (Barclays) to support its Covid-19 relief efforts across the country over the next two months.
Barclays has already partnered with many charity partners in Asia Pacific through its global £100m COVID-19 Community Aid Package, and the high value partnership with Magic Bus is an initiative of yet another corporate philanthropic endeavour during the Covid-19 pandemic that has affected the world, the company said.
Barclays is funding Magic Bus to create awareness on the pandemic and distribute dry ration to provide 18,000 distressed families with 10.8 million meals for 2 months across 14 states and 17 districts covering: Maharashtra (Mumbai, Pune); Tamil Nadu (Chennai); Delhi & NoidaWest Bengal (South 24 Parganas); Assam (Guwahati); Jharkhand (Ranchi); UP (Lucknow); Andhra Pradesh (Kurnool); Telangana (Medchal, Vikarabad); Haryana (Rohtak); Punjab (Ludhiana); Gujarat (Ahmedabad Rural/ Viramgam); Karnataka (Mysore); and Kerala (Idukki, Ernakulam).
Nearly 50% of the funding will be utilised in Mumbai, Delhi, Noida, Pune and Chennai, which have been severely hit and are the worst affected cities.
Magic Bus Global CEO Jayant Rastogi, said, “We are delighted to be partnering with Barclays who are playing a very active role in supporting the marginalised communities during these challenging times. As soon as we recognised the wide-ranging disruption across communities, caused by Covid-19, we realised we needed to work with local government officials and communities to bring social awareness, behavioural change and to provide food security.”
He added that they responded with speed to reach out to communities and keep them safe. “We have so far distributed dry ration kits and food to over 2,00,000 people and we aim to provide 18 million meals to families. I am absolutely certain that the support from Barclays will get more families back on their feet and we are very grateful,” he added.
Magic Bus was founded in 1999 by Matthew Spacie. From 3,000 children in 1999 in Mumbai, Magic Bus has transformed over one million children and young people living in poverty, taking them from a childhood full of challenges to a life with meaningful livelihoods. Magic Bus is one of the largest poverty alleviation programmes in India, impacting 3,75,000 children and young people in 22 states and 80 districts of India, in this year alone.
Through livelihood centres, 30,000 youth have been trained and more than 70% placed in jobs in the organised sector with an average salary of Rs 10,287. Magic Bus also works in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar with 6,000 children, in 40 communities and 31 schools.
“We are aligned with Magic Bus’ approach in working to support the communities that have been severely impacted by Covid-19. Magic Bus has a committed team that is dedicated towards betterment of society, and we are happy to support their efforts,”Barclays Head of Citizenship, APAC, Renu Vasanth Kumar said.
