Vikram Bakshi, joint venture partner and MD, McDonald?s India (north & east region) is busy directing customers to the star-studded point-of-sales at his restaurant in the heart of the Capital. The day is special with the chain celebrating the culmination of World Children?s Week 2007. The stars brought down are film director and social activist, Prakash Jha, actor Sushma Seth and model Feroze Gujral. ?Cutting the bills at the counter is different with the stars taking your orders. The profit from sales done by the celebrities will go to our cause of paediatric eye care. Our target is to get more sales that the regular days,? says the man, who in any case claims the maximum sales among all the fast food joints across the world.
With a child going blind every minute in India, the country has got one fifth of the world?s blind children.?The social responsibility mission of McDonald?s ? I care for eye care ?is part of World Children?s Week. The campaign was flagged off with an interstate painting competition, My Beautiful World, which saw the participation of 30,000 students across 140 schools in 20 cities. The prize-winning entries printed as greetings cards are on sale in all the family restaurants of the chain in north and east of India. The proceeds from the sales will be donated to the paediatric wing of Dr Shroff?s Charity Eye Hospital (SCEH) to be used for corrective eye surgeries and other initiatives to help correct the vision of visually and economically challenged children.
To reach out to a larger number of children, McDonald?s has also initiated a mobile eyecare camp, in partnership with SCEH, through which a series of eyecare camps have been organised among less-fortunate children .
?The partnership has also taken us to camps in cities like Agra where people came in huge numbers,? says Arun Arora, CEO, SCEH. As per funds, the story is good. The range of greeting cards itself raises Rs 7-8 lakh for SCEH each year. ?Looking at serious footfalls, including children and parents, the association with the chain leads us to the society straight. Last year, the chain used the information about paediatric eyecare and importance of wearing spectacles at the right time through the leaflets kept on its serving plates. The access to information led to sensitisation of people eating at McDonald?s,? adds Arora.
Between November 14 and November 20 (International Children?s Day), McDonald?s celebrates its World Children?s Week. Associating its social responsibility mission with the cause in 2002, the chain has been celebrating the week to raise funds across the globe. Today more than 100 countries have helped McDonald?s raise more than $12 million for Ronald McDonald House Charities and other global causes.
