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It's charity time

ETA STAR and its joint venture partners will donate 1 per cent of total sales during the Holy month of Ramadan to build homes for the homeless. Any property purchased from them and its joint venture partners Hircon and Star Giga during the Holy month of Ramadan will result in one per cent of the total sales value being donated to the RCA who in turn will build houses for the needy. ETA Star Property spokesperson, Shyam Sunder talks about the company.

What was reason for such an initiative and why RCA?

Since inception, we have been trying to adopt a cause to which it can contribute to the society. By adoption we mean completely owning the responsibility end to end —from raising funds to disbursal to ensuring the money reaches those who need it to monitoring the progress on an ongoing basis. After a lot of considering we chose the cause to provide homes to the homeless as it is the need of the hour and related closely to our core business. RCA was the first NGO that came to mind due to their standing and credibility with the public. They have been involved in housing projects in several countries and there came about the synergy and the tie-up.

Is this the first time the company has been involved in such a social cause? What are the other activities you have been involved in?

As a group we are quite active in environmental issues apart from charity and donations regularly. We were involved a unique environmental programme "Adopt a Plant" 2 years back. However the "Homes for the homeless" programme is our first large scale CSR initiative.

How much do you intend to contribute to RCA at the end of the campaign?

We hope to achieve total sales of between Dh 100 to Dh 150 million during this month of Ramadan. As committed we will contribute 1% of this to the cause this year.

Where will the money be used and would the company be involved in the construction of the houses?

We have requested RCA to use the funds to provide housing for the real downtrodden and poverty-ridden people in Africa. These are basic housing structures. The aim is to provide housing to as many people as possible and therefore the costs of construction cannot be too high. RCA will confirm these details very soon.

The company will not be involved in the construction as these resources are already presently available.

Do you think this company is setting an example to all other corporate to start thinking on lines of social responsibilities?

We hope so.

What has been the feedback to your initiative so far?

Quite overwhelming.