Sify Alambana

Sify approaches its social responsibility as a corporate citizen in much the same way that it approaches the rest of the business – with zeal, commitment and forethought.

Sify took the initiative of setting up the Chennai center of the “Sify Alambana Trust”, a non-profit social organization run by spouses of Associates.

The Alambana philosophy is to improve the quality of life of the under privileged members of society by focusing on education, health and the environment. The special focus of Alambana is to facilitate the under privileged to move up the socio economic levels by meeting their aspirations using information technology.

Ongoing Projects

Alambana Vidya:

The project was inaugurated on September 1st, 2001 and provides free quality IT education to students from economically weaker families, who represent youth at risk, to enable them to find suitable jobs.

Alambana Vidya targets boys and girls between the ages of 18 and 21, who are unable to study further because of financial constraints or other reasons.

They are normally school dropouts from Class 8 to 10, with knowledge of English and Maths. They are selected based on an aptitude test and an interview. More than 50% of the students are girls drawn from communities where they are typically not encouraged to take up careers.

Presently, the twenty second batch is being trained with 20 students. Alambana has so far trained and placed over 450 young adults in IT related careers.

Bala Alambana:

With the objective of bringing about a change in the mindset of children, as well as parents, on the benefits of going to school, we adopted a Corporation Primary School in the Thousand Lights area of Chennai a little over a year ago. The project, christened 'Bala Alambana', was inaugurated on March 4, 2004 with a magic show for the school children.

The challenge lay in motivating these children and their parents to appreciate the value of the education imparted at school and in empowering them with knowledge, including personal hygiene and fitness. Only then would the drop out rates at the school be brought down, and the children to do well in terms of mental and physical development, and graduate to higher classes.

The past year has seen them learn nursery rhymes, often-used words that enhance children's spoken English, arts and crafts like drawing, coloring, number puzzles and gardening to build up their creativity. Regular competitions in Drawing and painting, and sports activities have been the children's favourites. Other activities like screening of entertaining and educative films for children, and the art of origami where well received.

There has been a marked difference in their attendance level and their way of grooming. The children now seem happy to come to school, and their parents willing to send them.