Four years old Gungun from Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Budhh Nagar was born without eyesight and as she grew up, the problem of delayed speech she developed also worried her parents. Gungun was admitted to a special learning centre in the area and within a small time her speech began to emerge. She also showed a positive growth in terms of gaining physical and fine motor skills. To the deep satisfaction and exhilaration of her parents, she was placed in a mainstream play school. All this was made possible by the efforts of Metlife Global Operations Support Centre Pvt Ltd.

As a CSR funding agency, Metlife has been focussing on providing support to differently-abled children stimulating growth in their early childhood days among other projects that it has taken up. Metlife joined hands with non-government organisation (NGO) Saksham to develop a unique program for delivering family support and educational development services to children with visual impairments or deaf blindness.

This project is one among the several flagship projects that Metlife supports. The company calls its CSR initiative M-Pact which is an abbreviation of the phase Metlife’s Impact. And its impact is not just restricted to the children with special needs but also spreads to the vulnerable elders of our society who are abandoned by their families. For this, Metlife supports various old-age homes in the region facilitating infrastructural development and better functioning.

Metlife divides its two projects under two broad heads - namely Madhyam and Saanjh. Madhyam is further implemented in two phases; first being the Infant to Toddler Program wherein the intervention is done to support children between the ages of 0 and 4. The families of these children are also provided support in form of rehabilitation and counselling. In addition, special schools for differently-abled children are given technological support by Metlife. The organisation also extends its support to families across the country.

The second phase or part of Madhyam is called Integrated Education Program which, as the name suggests, tries to train the special children in life skills and other activities to as to bring them in the mainstream. Gungun’s story if an example of the success of this project.

Under Saanjh project, as mentioned above, the support is extended to Guru Vishram Vridhh Ashram (GVVA) and Metlife fulfills service requirements (caretakers, doctors, etc) and infrastructural requirements. It provides medicine, health checkup facilities and has established a pathological unit along with a pathological lab with latest equipment.

Apart from this, Metlife also partners with other old-age homes in Delhi and NCR like Anand Niketan in Noida, Sandhya in Netaji Nagar, Vardaan in Malviya Nagar, etc. For the Madhyam project also, it works in collaboration with different organisation and implementing agencies like Om Foundation, Setu Foundation, Magic Bus and others.

The project commenced in the year 2015 and is scheduled to conclude in 2020. Metlife has allocated a total budget of Rs 2 crore for its projects with 90,00,000 going to the Madhyam project and 1,20,00,000 going to Saanth. In just two years of its commencement, the project has impacted the lives of over 120 differently-abled children and 130 elderly people. The company also encourages active involvement of its employees in all the developmental activities that it undertakes. For example, the project leaders of both the projects are company employees who have taken up the responsibility apart from their regular jobs. In 2016-17, Metlife had achieved 1000 hours of volunteering by its employees. It targets to impact the lives of 800 individuals by the end of its five-years goal.

To ensure a sustained growth and accountability of the implementing partners, Metlife has a robust monitoring and evaluation model in place. It conducts regular site visits, quarterly review meetings with project leaders, takes monthly progress reports from NGOs, monitors financial transactions, does annual impact study and also takes feedback from the beneficiaries to ensure satisfactory results. Changes are made accordingly if some issues are discovered.

“Based on our experience & learning from our current projects, we are extending our project reach to Jaipur, Rajasthan. With the support of our current implementing partners, we initiated the needs & baseline assessment in the local community close to our Jaipur office premises to understand ongoing projects and identification of new avenues of intervention & support. We have identified an implementing partner- RNKS (Rajasthan Netraheen Kalyan Sangh) at Jaipur. They are working with the blind and visually impaired children and adults,” it states on the question of its plan to expand to other geographies.

Meflife’s work has changed the lives of many childen like Gungun and their parents. It has also brought a new ray of hope to the lives of many abandoned elderlies in Delhi and Noida. Its plan to take the projects to other geographies is also a positive step for the future. M-pact continues to make a lasting impact.

Impact-Story is a series on development and CSR interventions leading to some impacts on the ground. If you have a project, innovation or intervention that has changed the lives of a few people or a community, please share a brief note at csr@ngobox.org. Our Team will get back to you after validating the information for a detailed coverage.