Message from the Chairperson Message from the Chairperson: Sonali Deshpande

Message from the Chairman

Dear Valued Stakeholders,

Commemorating 15 years of “Service to Society” has given us an added impetus to move ahead with more enthusiasm and energy. The video that we curated to showcase our success and the impact of our work was very well received and appreciated in all parts of India and the US as well. Our celebrations took us from Pune to Hyderabad, Goa, Bengaluru, and Nagpur. Our interactions with the NGOs we support helped us realise the value that our interventions have added to the lives of our beneficiaries. We are truly humbled and indebted to everyone who contributed to us reaching this milestone. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to our stakeholders, employees, and our beneficiaries. Our Trustees and our Board Members are our guiding light every step of the way. The donations of time and money by Persistent employees always enhance the scope of our projects, and our Foundation team members are, of course, the torch bearers of our success and achievements. Throughout the year, we have given our best efforts in ensuring the smooth flow of our commitments in the community. In Education, we onboarded a new batch of 52 young women pursuing engineering. Due to the new Government guidelines, we changed our format and decided to fund hostel and food expenses instead of the tuition fees. We now have 157 young women in our Kiran Girls Scholarship and Mentoring Program. In schools, we are helping more than 6,000 students with life skills, substance abuse awareness, sex education, and hygiene and sanitation. After-school coaching at our study centres is helping 600-plus children improve academic performance and concentration. Sports training in football is helping 1,000 deaf children improve physical endurance and self-esteem in a big way. Tribal students show exceptional prowess in athletics and are competing in inter-school tournaments. Intellectually challenged students are being provided with vocational skills to make them independent and employable. In Health, our efforts continue to focus on child and adult health. Close to 1,300 life-saving paediatric cardiac and supra specialty surgeries, along with cleft lip and palate surgeries and cochlear implants, have been our top priority. About 3,400 children have benefitted through our morning nutrition program in schools in Goa and Bangalore. The 1,700-plus cataract surgeries for senior citizens in Hyderabad that we organised this year have worked wonders — to play a role restoring these people’s eyesight so they can be more productive and confident is incredibly gratifying. In Community Development, our target has been to provide water for drinking and farming. Construction of wells for drinking water has reduced drudgery for women who regularly needed to walk long distances hauling water. Building dams and reservoirs on streams and rivers has helped farmers improve agricultural practices and thus have better yields and increased incomes. Fodder and vaccination along with artificial insemination for cattle has yielded healthier and stronger calves along with increased milk production — leading to a dairy business boom. We provided bio-gas plants to 250 families to provide energy savings as well as an alternative source of cooking for households. We have provided training for youth in fisheries, hair cutting, tailoring, and driving, assisting with job creation in the villages, and thus preventing migration and creating opportunities for nano entrepreneurs to blossom. We also planted more than 35,000 trees as per our annual target. Our Preservation of Heritage and Wildlife efforts have seen some interesting developments. We helped to provide audio guides in three languages for a museum in Pune, a pioneering initiative which has transformed the museum experience for visitors. We were able to identify 60 nests of white-bellied sea eagle on the beaches of Goa and those have been under observation and preservation. We helped construct a bird aviary for an animal welfare shelter, allowing the facility to treat 200 birds and release 140 of them back in the wild. We have extended our support in helping design and print books in three tribal languages, which are being taught in the local regions, helping to keep them in existence. Persistent employees have always proved to be generous and willing to participate in the Foundation’s volunteering drives. Through 37 initiatives across 10 cities in India, we saw 10,000 employees contributing 11,500 hours of their time and INR 8.10 M for various causes. We cannot thank them enough. This year saw the launch of Persistent Foundation in the US, allowing us to serve the US community with the help of Persistent’s clients. Our areas of focus are Education, Community Development, and Environment and Sustainability. We have been able to establish connections with respected nonprofit organisations and plan on working with high school students, army veterans, animal welfare shelters, homeless families, and more. We are very excited about this new venture and are anticipating lot of exciting developments in the coming months. We look forward to sharing more news and details about our life-changing initiatives throughout the year, and we remain eternally thankful for your ongoing support and partnership.

Message from THE CHAIRPERSON

With best regards,

Sonali Deshpande Chairperson and Founder Trusteeat Persistent Foundation Learn more about Persistent Foundation: https://www.persistentfoundation.org

Sonali Deshpande Chairperson and Founder Trustee at Persistent Foundation

“Our interactions with the NGOs we support helped us realise the value that our interventions have added to the lives of our beneficiaries. We are truly humbled and indebted to everyone who contributed to us reaching this milestone.”

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