Gift A Smile foundation, an initiative launched earlier this year by Amazon has added 15 more NGOs working for various social causes, ranging from child development, education, health care & protection to women empowerment and more.
The reach of the initiative has now widened to cover states like Kerala, Uttarakhand and Telangana where some of the new NGO have their centres. With this, customers can now choose to gift products from 'wishlists' posted by 25 NGOs, directly to the beneficiaries and light up their Diwali.
"Gift A Smile is an impactful way for consumers to gift directly to beneficiaries with ease and convenience. We feel fortunate that we are able to create a small, yet meaningful impact on the lives of many people using our platform. With many new NGOs joining us, we believe that many more beneficiaries from marginalised sectors will be able to benefit from this initiative," Amit Agarwal, vice-president and country manager, Amazon India, said.
Through this initiative, anyone can gift a product from wishlists posted by several NGOs and can support any of the eight causes such as: child education, skill development, differently-abled persons, women's empowerment, child health, sports for development, terminally-ill children and children needing care and protection.
The 15 new NGOs that have now joined as partners and listed their 'wishlists' on Amazon.in include CRY, Care & Love, Ashray Akruti, Sphoorti, Bhagvatula CT, Bhumi, Vidyarambam, Yuva Global Foundation, Sikshana, Aarohi, Tropical Health Foundation of India, Action for Autism, Astha-Alternative strategy for the Handicapped, Isha and TeachforIndia.
In the first phase of the 'Gift A Smile' initiative, NGOs like Magic Bus, Make a Wish foundation, Pratham, READ India, Sahyog, Save the Children, Bhoruka Charitable Trust, Jagriti Bal Vikas Samiti, Lotus Petal Foundation and Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra had created their wishlists.
The wishlists include, but are not limited to products like, educational toys, books, dictionaries, sports equipment, clothes, personal hygiene products, as well as items that will help NGOs provide vocational training to help develop sustainable livelihoods.
All participating NGOs have been validated by Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), a not-for-profit organisation that offers support to corporate entities, individuals and PSUs to ensure greater impact of their philanthropic and CSR investments.
