Tractus India Supports Rural Students with Food Packages Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

August 10, 2021; Chennai, India—On August, 2 2021, India registered 40,134 fresh COVID-19 infections, pushing its virus tally to 32 million. As the second most affected country globally, India is facing 420,000 active cases and an average of 500 daily fatalities for the last month. Nearly 490 million vaccine doses have been administered, with 7.9% of the population of 1.4 billion being fully vaccinated. The central government is administering 3-5 million vaccines every day to state governments and private hospitals and as the vaccine drive improves, we foresee India achieving its new normal and business start resuming operations in full swing by the end of 2021.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate the country, last week Tractus Asia conducted its 10^th year of Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives in India in cooperation with the Arcot Lutheran Church (ALC), a 150-year old network of schools established by Danish missionaries. The ALC has 97 schools across Tamil Nadu that provide education to their children from low income, rural, and ethnic and caste minority communities.

The Tractus team visited 2 ALC schools in the state of Tamil Nadu—90 students in Sankarapuram, Kallakurichi District and 70 students in Yercaud, Salem District. The team donated food packages that would last the next two months for each of the students’ families, including rice, pulses, salt, sugar, cooking oil, spices, and sweet and savory snacks. Most of the children studying in these ALC schools are from tribal communities which were disproportionately affected by COVID-19, with a lack of support and resources coming in. Tractus has been passionate about supporting this need since the pandemic started in 2020. Participants of this event followed COVID-19 safety protocols, and it was a joy to see the students and their families coming in and collecting all the goodies.

The boarding students of 6 ALC schools in Tamil Nadu are financially supported through a sponsorship program led by Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry (LPGM), a U.S.-based organization that partnered with ALC in 1996. Local Tamil staff support LPGM’s partner ALC schools in Tamil Nadu such as the Sankarapuram School to oversee their students’ sponsorship and education. LPGM and Tractus have a long history together, beginning over two decades ago when Tractus Co-Founder and Managing Director John Evans’ mother Beverly Evans first connecting with LPGM and began sponsoring Tamil girls, supporting their education and writing letters back and forth. The 2021 CSR event was held in loving memory of Beverly Evans, whose legacy lives on in the Evans family and the Tractus team today. If you are interested in ways to support LPGM, you can learn more here.

At Tractus we feel the best investment we can make in the future development of the economies in which we live and work is an investment in students and their education. We are deeply committed to doing our part to improve the educational opportunities for students in the countries where we operate, and we believe that progress can be made only through education. This is one of our core values and an integral part of our annual company activities. You can read more about our CSR initiatives across our offices here.