Bangalore: The ongoing COVID-19 crisis and the ensuing lockdowns in India have greatly interrupted and impacted the educational lives of students in India. With Government Schools opening in the new year, Embassy Group has mobilized their corporate and NGO partners, under their Corporate Connect Program, to work with the Government and Department of Education to prepare schools for the return of their students.

Embassy and their corporate partner in health, Cerner, have collaborated to design a targeted program that could tackle common health issues in a comprehensive manner – from preventive to detective. Joined by Swiss Re Foundation and Cognizant, the program that has been present in Government Schools in 2016, has strengthened during the Covid-19 pandemic to encompass over 45,000 students in Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Noida, Chennai and Hosur.

With the onset of the virus, they bolstered their existing programs including the distribution of health kits, preventive awareness and top-to-bottom school maintenance.

Together, the corporate health consortium has distributed preventive health kits to students across India. Each kit safeguards against the virus, as well as bolsters each student’s general hygiene. The kit contains handwash, bath soaps, washing soap, re-usable cloth masks, shampoo, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a tongue cleaner, a nail cutter and a comb.

Congratulating the corporates and making an appeal for others organisations to join this partnership, Sri S.R. Umashankar, IAS, Principal Secretary to Government, Primary & Secondary Education, Government of Karnataka, said “It is extremely heartening to see corporates such as Embassy Group providing a model for partnering with the Government in providing equitable and safe education to our underprivileged children. We are very pleased to renew this meaningful partnership to strengthen our existing education system, and hope such initiatives encourage other corporates to join us.”