The bank as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility has undertaken many purposeful activities. However, most of these are channelized at the group level under the aegis of the ING Vysya Foundation. For more details, please visit www.ingvysyafoundation.com

ING Vysya Foundation was set up almost three years ago actively supported by the three business units of ING Vysya (ING Vysya Bank, ING Vysya Life Insurance and ING Vysya Mutual Fund) to promote its Corporate Social Responsibility. The mandate for the Foundation is to promote primary education for under privileged children. This fits in well with ING Group’s global vision of empowering children through education and ING’s partnership with UNICEF.

Accordingly, ING Vysya Foundation’s commitment to empower children through primary education has been the focus in the last three years. In a country with an estimated 50 million children deprived of basic primary education and health care, enormous support, dedication and firm belief is necessary to make a difference and to change the scenario. The foundation's efforts have very successful in reaching out to underprivileged children and providing them with a platform to learn, grow and achieve through partnerships with 4 non profit organizations located in India.

Background:

ING Chances for Children is an ING worldwide corporate program that aims to give 50,000 children in India, Brazil and Ethiopia access to education before the end of 2007 and to improve the quality of education in the local communities in which ING businesses are active.

Targets and Objectives:

The key objective of the ING Chances for Children program is to improve the well-being of children aged 4-12 worldwide by giving them access to free, compulsory basic schooling that aims to develop each child's ability to the fullest. ING Chances for Children will be doing this by giving children access to education, by providing the necessary skills and through investment in educational organizations.

The main targets of the ING Chances for Children program are:

UNICEF Partnership

The ING Chances for Children program has joined forces with UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, to achieve the target of giving 50,000 children access to education. The program will be supporting educational UNICEF projects in India, Brazil and Ethiopia. The partnership with UNICEF will also enable the local ING business units to team up with local UNICEF offices and take advantage of each other’s unique positions at a community level. A range of other projects and partnerships with other organizations will be started, both internationally and locally.

In India, along with the ING Vysya Foundation, the ING and UNICEF partnership is focused to provide quality education for working children in Tamil Nadu. 15,000 children will benefit from quality education in 200 learning centers for former child workers under the National Child Labor Elimination Project (NCLP).

The project focuses on strategies to provide quality education for children who are either already working in low-paid, low-skilled industries or who are out-of-school and therefore extremely vulnerable to becoming child laborers. In Tamil Nadu the project emphasizes on child-friendly schools, quality education, community involvement and responsibility in ensuring children can learn and build a solid foundation for a hopeful future and make a strong basis for ensuring that children remain in school and complete a course in primary education. Activities will especially focus on preventing child labor, protecting children’s rights and promoting quality education.

600 teachers will be reinvigorated through capacity building and professional training pedagogy and motivation. Through workshops with some 180 staff from government departments, UNICEF will cultivate and reinforce supportive alliances in ensure quality education through to working children.