by Father Rolvin D'Mello
CHINCHWAD, NOV 14, 2016: The Don Bosco Development Society (DBDS), in partnership with AXA Business Services Private Limited (AXA BS) launched the women empowerment 
project in the slums of Pimpri – Chinchwad on November 11.
The project will directly benefit 2500 women and children and is aimed at promoting gender equality and empowerment of women through income generation, skill development, health education, free health camps and free educational support classes for the children from marginalised families.
As part of the initiative 10 self-help groups will be formed to improve education and health levels of 250 children from the slums. Dheeraj Khurana, Senior Vice-President of AXA BS and Father Godfrey D'Souza, Provincial of Don Bosco, Mumbai province, were present at the inauguration ceremony. A number of beneficiaries were also present, along with the children from the slums and their teachers.
Affirming AXA's commitment, Khurana said, "Underprivileged communities typically face issues of unemployment, alcoholism, drug usage. Women and girl children are the victims of such conditions and are deprived of education, dignity and economic independence. At AXA, our mission is to empower people to lead better lives and this is also a guiding principle for our corporate responsibility initiatives. We are very happy to support this initiative (by DBDS) and believe this will bring about sustainable change in the lives of women in the Pimpri - Chinchwad slums."
Father D'Souza added, "We are glad to collaborate with AXA on such a wonderful initiative for the poor and marginalised from the slums." The programme ended with an interactive activity between the beneficiaries present and the AXA staff.