Raj Nanra (pictured), CEO of IQumulate, has announced an annual partnership with youth charity organisation, Sony Foundation.
While he was already searching for a charity partnership for his corporate social responsibility efforts, he says when he discovered why Sony Foundation focused on adolescents and young adults, he was compelled to get involved to help raise awareness.
“We actually looked at a number of charities that we thought would align with our values and who we are. I dug a bit deeper into Sony Foundation and what I found was that they had a slightly different approach in that they were looking at it from a demographic aspect as opposed to a specific disease or condition,” he said.
“When I asked them why they chose to go down this demographic route they explained that their focus on children, or what they call ‘adolescents and youth’ between the ages of 15 and 25… [was] due to the startling statistics they found with that age bracket, and that is, that they have one of the lowest survival rates with cancer.”
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“At that age, you’re just starting life and then suddenly you’re confronted with a life changing challenge such as cancer,” he continued. “Supporting such a young demographic who are faced with the challenges of dealing with cancer, was very compelling to me.”
On a brighter note, Sony Foundation is heavily associated with music through its Musicians Making A Difference campaign. That was appealing to the CEO because he believes music speaks truth to emotions.
“When you’re sad, when you’re scared, when you’re nervous or even when you’re excited – music has the power to lift one’s spirits to make you feel better and help forget about some of the challenges that life has thrown at you,” he said.
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“If you look at the Sony Foundation’s own statement, Sony Foundation believes in the universal power of music to heal and to change lives… how they approached their work using music to brighten these people’s lives up was, to me, just three ticks to the box.”
Sony Foundation perfectly embodies the sort of charity work that IQumulate wants to help bolster. When he asked himself “what do we stand for?” he reflected that he’d usually say, “the future.” These children represent the future.
“The difference we wanted to make was not just to raise awareness but to help families manage these challenging times,” he said. “Not only through the dollar but also through our time.”
More information on the Sony Foundation can be found at www.sonyfoundation.org
