The Hindu Business Line : Fujitsu Consulting to fund school project near Lonavla

Pune April 17 First it was the Habitat for Humanity's Georgia-based Jimmy Carter Work Project (JCWP). Now it is the turn of the Japan-based Fujitsu to turn their eyes on the little village called Patan in Malavli near Lonavla.

Fujitsu will fund a school, which would begin its academic year mostly by June, and would provide education to about 200 children, which includes children from the nearby villages, Mr Masayuki Tokuda, Executive Vice-President, Fujitsu Consulting, told presspersons at the site.

Talks are also on with the State Government to begin an English medium school, he said. The school is being constructed on a 2,400 sq ft area on the JCWP area and the two-storey classroom would have about six classrooms of about 400 sq ft with a community hall. The amount that has been used for the development of the school is about Rs 50 lakh. He noted that 50 per cent has been the Fujitsu contribution and the rest was from Habitat India.

It may be recalled that in October 2006, Habitat for Humanity had roped in the former US President, Mr Jimmy Carter, to build about 100 homes in Malavli.

Larger initiative

This is part of the HFH's larger initiative of building 50,000 homes in the country, said Mr Peter Selvarajan, Chief Executive Officer of HFH. Out of these, about 3,000 houses would be built for the tsunami-affected victims and would be in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

He noted that the Andhra Pradesh Government has already approved the 1,000-housing projects. It is also in the process of setting up another 1,000 houses in the western region of Maharashtra, which would include Mahad, Pune and western Aurangabad, he said.

The funding for these projects included global HFH, Citi group and added that about $ 1 million would be coming in for the construction.

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