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Forbes India Philanthropy Awards 2013: Director of Cognizant Outreach Wins ‘The Good Samaritan Award’

Archana Raghuram, the driving force behind Cognizant’s employee-led social volunteering program Outreach, won ‘The Good Samaritan Award’ at Forbes India Philanthropy Awards 2013 “for bringing a sense of focus, purpose and outcome in Cognizant's volunteering efforts in the education space. And for not losing the essence of the grassroots connect between volunteers and students”.

The award was presented to Raghuram at a glittering awards function in Bangalore, organized around the theme of celebrating the role models of philanthropy, and attended by a galaxy of entrepreneurs, CXOs and leading academicians.

“Since late 2007,” the magazine writes in Raghuram's profile, “due to the tireless efforts of Archana Raghuram, 40, and her band of super-motivated volunteer colleagues, Cognizant has been spearheading a successful and large-scale school education initiative that promises to nurture children…In just six years, Outreach, the IT major’s CSR program has become an effective platform for improving children’s education in the country, thanks largely to the vision of its global head, Archana Raghuram.”

The magazine adds, “Cognizant’s CSR program, Outreach, has already partnered over 100 schools across India and worked with more than 400,000 students. Over 45,000 of its employees have volunteered 460,000 cumulative hours of effort till date, helping schools and students work towards a better future.”

“Outreach was launched on November 15, 2007, as we hit the $2 billion revenue mark as a company,” says Raghuram. “Interestingly, Cognizant had given all its employees an Apple iPod when it touched the $1 billion revenue figure. Now, with Outreach, the company had found a way to “give back” to local communities.”

Raghuram’s trigger, writes the magazine, is “a desire to build a platform that can convince either a fence-sitter to volunteer even for a few hours, or enable a passionate volunteer to deliver more effectively,” and her mission is “to create a self-sustaining and evolving program that straddles primary school, college education and vocational training.”

“In the first year, we had over 200 volunteers from across levels. In many ways, those passionate and motivated employees set the tone and built the momentum for the whole program,” says Raghuram. “We want to make sure that in our 100 schools, the children are performing at expected levels.”

“Archana is very committed and sincere, and makes a lot of time for Outreach,” says Sudha Kidao, Managing Trustee of Foundation for Excellence. “Archana and her team bring engineering and problem-solving abilities to the fore, thinking through most processes, especially ‘what’s next’. At times, her team feels like an NGO within the organization!”

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