Hoteliers Show Heart by Donating Them

CSR IS something that all hoteliers are passionate about. BW Hotelier caught up with Nasir Shaikh the General Manager of the Courtyard by Marriott in Chakan, Pune and chatted about the CSR activities they have been associated with in recently.

“As a hotel, we have always focussed on supporting the community,” Shaikh began by telling us, adding that the staff at the hotel are very enthusiastic about supporting and working on the CSR projects.

“Most of us who are associated with the CSR projects go above and beyond what is needed, it’s something that the management doesn’t ever need to push,” he adds.

As a team, right in the beginning we made a calendar of activities that we would do to make a difference to the community, the environment or both, he continued.

One of the most interesting initiatives that the hotel has begun, is of organ donation.

“We began by coordinating with the nodal agency, National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation or NOTTO and its Director, Dr Vimal Bhandari, who reached out to us,” Shaikh added.

With just .3 percent of India actually pledging organs, Shaikh thought the hotel’s initiative was very necessary. The organ donation was done through a camp at which sister hotels were also invited.

“In total, we got 98 donors, 80 percent of whom pledged all their organs during the camp,” Shaikh told us.

The hotel also did other CSR activities throughout 2016, here are some highlights.

In Khalumbre village, a zila parishad school (government school) did not have toilets for the male students, the hotel undertook the responsibility of building proper toilet facilities for the young students at the school. The hotel also relocated and repaired the play area of the school, constructed accessibility to the play area, painted the interior and exterior of the canteen facility and also the water storage tank. The project completion took two weeks.

Dangarwadi, a small village atop one of the remotest hills in Maharashtra was in dire need of the basic living amenities - water. The hotel facilitated the installation of solar-powered water pumps in this village that enabled water to be pumped from the well directly to houses.

The Courtyard By Marriott Pune Chakan used the resources at hand to install individual solar units to provide electricity to all the families (60 to 80 people) staying in the village of Dnyanupur, a village in Mulshi Tehsil of Pune district and consists of a population of about 60-80 people..