How Cube Roots Foundation aims to uplift communities by betting on health, education and environment
Launched in 2020, Cube Roots Foundation, the CSR arm of Cube Highways, has impacted communities by undertaking various social initiatives.
Singapore-based Cube Highways is a leading toll management and highways management company that invests in road and highway projects along with other select infrastructure sectors in India.
The company started its CSR (corporate social responsibility) arm ‘Cube Roots Foundation’ (CRF) in 2020 to make a positive impact on the surrounding communities.
The foundation works across states such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. It claims to have impacted communities by undertaking various social initiatives.
From one of the computer training centers started by CRF
“At Cube Highways, our endeavor is to drive positive change in our immediate communities and the world at large. We aim to solve specific social and community issues and enable beneficiaries of our programs to secure a better future,” Shibashish Sahoo, VP, Social Safeguard of Cube Highways, tells SocialStory
Improving education facilities
Shibashish explains how the company is driving positive change in communities. The foundation has undertaken some key projects in the field of education.
Cube Roots says it provides financial assistance of Rs 10,000 (each) to underprivileged meritorious students who have cleared tenth standard exams from government schools.
Last year in November, Cube Roots and Jaipur Mahua Tollway Ltd awarded scholarships to 44 underprivileged students of government schools of Jaipur and Dausa districts.
“To date, we have given scholarships to 564 students; we have provided digital literacy to 537 youth; 943 women have received tailoring training,” Shibashish says.
Additionally, the foundation, under its ‘Sarvangeen Abhiyan’ project has started augmenting basic infrastructure in government schools, along the highways stretch and covered 16 schools in six states. This initiative claims to have touched the lives of more than 7,500 students in government schools.
With the aim of provisioning safe drinking water facilities at schools, it installed RO machines in the school campuses.
“Youths from rural areas have limited scope and support to add additional skills for their employability. To meet the gap, we started computer training centers to train rural youths with digital literacy in four states, skilling around 1480 people,” explains Shibashish.
Women teaching tailoring
With five tailoring training centres, CRF provides self-sustainable income generation for rural women in some states. The organisation says the initiative has benefited more than 900 rural women and made them self-sustainable to earn a livelihood.
Other key focuses
Cube offers support to rural health centers by providing services such as infrastructure support to rural health centers based on the gap analysis. According to the team, about 83 health centres in 10 states reach out to 20,255 patients per day.
In 2020, when COVID-19 hit the people and economy, CRF reached out to the marginalised and vulnerable communities who were heavily impacted to provide aid. CRF provided PPE kits to frontline workers, as well as provided food packets, clean drinking water, first aid to migrant workers who were forced to walk several kilometres to reach homes.
In addition, 14 students in Rajasthan who lost their parents to COVID-19 received financial aid from the foundation during last year.
Uplifting the society
The foundation has an officer to look after its CSR activities in each project. Apart from education and health, Cube Roots’ team has also worked towards environmental sustainability, which includes rain water harvesting and rehabilitation of community ponds and mini percolation tanks to recharge groundwater and community use.
Shibashish says, “We have started rehabilitation of community ponds to recharge groundwater. As a result of our pond rehabilitation initiatives, we have recharged 39,244 kilolitres of water, which has helped thousands of people living in these areas.”
The foundation plans to reach out to more and more districts in the country and further uplift these areas in all aspects.
Edited by Affirunisa Kankudti