Mountain View and East Palo Alto, USA - September 28, 2017:
Five hundred Mountain View and East Palo Alto area elementary students will have new backpacks with three new books each for the new school year, as a result of a partnership between Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company and First Book. First Book is a nonprofit social enterprise that has delivered more than 170 million books and educational resources to programs and schools with children in need.
On September 28, Wipro volunteers will come together for a Backpack Build to fill 500 backpacks with 1,500 books at Wipro's Silicon Valley Innovation Center in Mountain View. On September 29, the backpacks will be delivered to Aspire East Palo Alto Charter School, located on Runnymede Street, as part of a 'reading celebration'. During the event, Wipro volunteers will read to children. Additional backpacks and gifts of books will be delivered to Mariano Castro Elementary School and Monta Loma Elementary School of the Mountain View Whisman School District. These books will be used to stock classroom libraries, facilitate reading circles, and help students build their home libraries. Wipro and First Book will be donating more than 6,500 books to the Mountain View and East Palo Alto community this year.
Wipro's presence in the region includes its Silicon Valley Innovation Center in Mountain View, launched in August. On September 17, Wipro hosted a "Spirit of Wipro" Run for employees, customers, partners, and their families. The event included a 10K, 5K, and 1K fun run for kids, music, games, and an employee-driven fundraiser for First Book to allocate additional resources to the Mountain View and East Palo Alto community.
"Wipro is committed to playing a role in enhancing access to books for children in the communities in which we operate," said Anurag Behar, Chief Sustainability Officer, Wipro Limited. "Our Mountain View-based employees are honored to support students' educational journey throughout the coming school year."
Since 2015, Wipro and First Book have partnered together to distribute over 118,000 books throughout the U.S. and Canada, with a goal of distributing over 200,000 books to children in need, as part of their three-year partnership.
Book ownership and a print-rich environment are leading indicators of a child's educational success, but for the 32 million children growing up in low-income families in the U.S. alone, books are scarce. A recent study found that in one low-income neighborhood, there was only one book for more than 800 children, whereas in moderate income neighborhoods, there are 13 books for every one child.1
First Book, which has operations in both the U.S. and Canada, works with formal and informal educators serving children in need aged between 0-18 years in a wide range of settings – from schools, classrooms, summer school and parks and recreational programs, to health clinics, homeless shelters, faith-based programs, libraries, museums, summer food sites and more. The organization supports more than one in four of the 1.3 million classrooms and programs that are serving children in need in the U.S. alone.
“Access to books deeply affects a child’s ability to learn, and we are grateful that Wipro and its employees in East Palo Alto and across the nation continue to support their local communities by spreading First Book’s mission of bringing the transformative power of books to children in need,” said Kyle Zimmer, president and CEO of First Book. “With the support and dedication of Wipro employees, tens of thousands of children can enjoy the power of reading and unlock their future.”
Reference
1 Susan Neuman, July 2016
About First Book
First Book transforms the lives of children in need. Through a sustainable, market-driven model, First Book is creating equal access to quality education - making everything from brand-new, high-quality books and educational resources to sports equipment and snacks affordable to its member network of more than 325,000 educators who exclusively serve kids in need. Since 1992, First Book has distributed more than 170 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income families in more than 30 countries. First Book currently reaches an average of 3 million children every year and supports more than one in four of the estimated 1.3 million educators serving children in need. With an additional 1,000 educators joining each week, First Book is the largest and fastest-growing network of educators in the United States exclusively serving kids in need. Eligible educators, librarians, providers, and others serving children in need can sign up at firstbook.org/register. For more information, please visit firstbook.org or follow the latest news on Facebook and Twitter .
About Wipro Limited
Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. We harness the power of cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies to help our clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship, we have over 160,000 dedicated employees serving clients across six continents. Together, we discover ideas and connect the dots to build a better and a bold new future.
Media Contacts:
Melanie Boyer
First Book
mboyer@firstbook.org
(o) 202-639-0144
Prathibha Das
Wipro Limited
prathibha.das@wipro.com
Brent Curry
Hill+Knowlton Strategies
brent.curry@hkstrategies.com
(o) 312-255-3086
Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements
Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, revenue and profits, our ability to generate and manage growth, intense competition in IT services, our ability to maintain our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which we make strategic investments, withdrawal of fiscal governmental incentives, political instability, war, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property, and general economic conditions affecting our business and industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. We may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.
