Bangalore, 31 May 2021: IBM (NYSE: IBM) is recognizing three teams from India in its annual Volunteer Excellence Awards for their innovative work in making education more accessible during the pandemic being innovative in their community volunteering during 2020.

The initiatives and people being recognized include a 10-person team providing remote mentoring for girl students, a 43-member team that recorded audiobooks for visually challenged learners, and a 12-person team conducting webinars for technology students to sustain education projects during Covid lockdowns.

The IBM teams recognized from India are part of 15 IBM volunteers or winning teams from 25 countries who were selected worldwide. The organizations associated with each winner will each receive a grant from IBM of USD $10,000 to expand the work started by the IBM volunteers.

The winners are just some of the IBMers in the area who joined thousands of their IBM colleagues who logged 1.25 million hours of community service worldwide last year.

“The Volunteer Excellence Awards recognizes the contributions of those who have truly gone above and beyond in their duties. I’m proud that three of our teams have been selected this year which is a testament to the selfless commitment of our volunteers in driving societal change. We are continuing these efforts during the second wave, with over 2000 IBM volunteers working around the clock to help IBMers, their families, and the community. We have formed volunteer squads to take requests for hospital beds, ICUs, oxygen requirements, ambulances, medicines, and more and direct them towards verified and available resources. These squads help save lives by quickly triaging requests and ensuring they are matched to resources available nationally,” said Manoj Balachandran, CSR Leader, IBM India/South Asia.

This year’s winners are from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam. 

IBM India’s GoodTech initiative focuses on supplementing India’s skilling efforts through programs that can be delivered online as well as through traditional methods. Today, we reach over 10 million learners in India through our good tech initiatives, skilling engagements, collaborations with clients and partners.

Since 2005, IBM’s Volunteer Excellence Award has recognized IBMers who best exemplify values of dedication, innovation, and trust through their volunteer efforts with not-for-profit organizations or schools.