National, November 7, 2020: This festive season, Amazon India is transforming the act of gifting, with a unique learning concept that leverages storytelling. The company has launched ‘Gift a Story’ – a special initiative to engage children, whose parents or family members work as associates in the Amazon Fulfilment and Delivery network. The initiative collectively involves Amazon employees, who lend their voice to record short educational stories, bedtime favourites and simple concepts in science.
Storytelling as always been an effective way of teaching and an engaging medium to ease children into learning, especially in India. As these children continue to learn from home, this initiative helps strengthen their cognitive skills while enabling parents to participate in their children’s learning. Through this initiative, Amazon is bringing the family together in a meaningful way and helping spread joy during the festive season. Designed in collaboration with Pratham books, the programme features more than 200 stories in six languages (English, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Hindi and Kannada) that Amazon India’s associates can access on the Sochcast website, by simply scanning the QR code. They can then download or stream the stories online; as well as extend the content to their friends and families, directly from the website.
Speaking about the newly launched initiative, Swati Rustagi, Director of Human Resources, Operations, Amazon India, said, “At Amazon, people are at the heart of everything we do – whether it’s our customers, sellers or teams. Each and every one of our associates in our network plays a crucial role in enabling the quality experience that customers associate with Amazon, especially during the festive season. This year, we wanted to gift our teams something that could be enjoyed by the entire family. We’re delighted to see the overwhelming response to the ‘Gift a Story’ programme and look forward to expanding this volunteering opportunity more widely within Amazon India.”
As part of its Community Development efforts, Amazon implements solutions for the holistic development and growth of the communities living in and around Amazon’s fulfilment centres spread across nearly 100 villages of India. Through its multifaceted interventions in education, health & hygiene, women empowerment, skill development & livelihood enhancement and environmental sustainability, the Community Development programme aimed at creating self-sustainable and thriving model communities. The programme complements the Government of India’s efforts in these communities and resonates well with the Government’s development goals.