by NR INDRAN / INT

As the year-long wait for the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2012 ends, a25-member contingent from Ion Foundation ran for a cause this January. On 15thJaunuary2012, Mr. Rajesh Sharma, Director, Ion Foundation and senior management ,along side employees, ran the Corporate Challenge Dream Run. The team ran to support the Paragon Charitable Trust, Project Muktangan – an NGO that offers alternatives to orthodox educational practices. The project seeks to offer a sustainable model of quality education at an affordable cost to the economically deprived sections of the society.

Muktangan’s vision isto create a replicable model of low cost child-centred education. To help build an inclusive, empowered world in which all live in harmony with freedom of expression, respect and integrity. The NGO strives to enrich and improve the quality of life of over 2100 children, annually adding 300 children across 7Municipal (MCGM) Schools in Mumbai as all 7 schools add a higher standard each year until they reach SSC between 2013 and 2017. In the last few years Ion Foundation’s Vision : “To create opportunities, enabling the underprivileged to become productive members of society” has reached out to over 2000beneficiaries. Ion Foundation has achieved this by providing the underprivileged children in areas around their execution units at Patancheru (A.P), Goa, Ankleshwar, Navi Mumbai and at Bangalore and Kolkatta, with educational assistance, vocational training, drinking water and sanitation facilities. A number of youth are also absorbed by their parent company, Ion Exchange IndiaLtd., leaders in Total Environment Solutions for over four decades.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rajesh Sharma, Director, Ion Foundation, said, “Ion Foundation’s team participation in the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon is in accordance with the company’s core values of serving thecommunity, especially the economically deprived sections. Our team’s run for the cause of education will help in providing timely and customized academic assistance, enabling the children become independent and well-informed citizens”.

To add a fun quotient to the marathon, the Ion Foundation team will wear specially designed T-shirts and caps. While some participants will hold placard messages  supporting education, others will carry umbrellas depicting the Ion Exchange product Zero B.

Ion Exchange (India) Limited  pioneers in water treatment in India is today the country’s premier company in water treatment and environment management ,with a strong National & International presence with over four decades of expertise.

Ion Exchange offers total water solutions for industry, homes and communities. Integrating process technology, design engineering and project management capability, Ion Exchange takes end-to-end responsibility – planning, integrating and managing water on supply, quantity, quality, discharge and environmental fronts. The company has provided installations for diverse industries in India and abroad, from nuclear and thermal power plant to fertilizer, refinery, automobile, electronics and textile industries.

Ion Exchange has several innovations and patents to its credit and their manufacturing facilities are ISO-9001certified. However, at Ion Exchange advancement in technology is accompanied with an in depth focus on knowledge-selling and hence, Ion Exchange invests in training its sales force apart from continuous Research and Development.

Muktangan, aninitiative of Paragon Charitable Trust, is a pioneering educational programme with an innovative model, working in close partnership with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and a number of NGOs across the country.

Muktangan is a community-based project in Mumbai, which runs a teacher training centre integrated into three educational centres.The goal of the project is to create a replicable model of low cost child-centred education.

This educational project is based on the professional experience of one of the trustees, who has worked for decades in the mainstream educational system across rural and semi-urban areas of India. The project has been promoted by and is run under the aegis of Paragon Charitable Trust, Mumbai, under a collaborative M.O.U. with the Brihanmumbai Muncipal Corporation as a laboratory school.

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