Mumbai, India

Tata Mumbai Marathon 2019

Over 150 Trafigura employees ran the Tata Mumbai Marathon on Sunday 20 January, one of the largest marathons in the world and the biggest participative sporting event in India. Our “Trafletes” covered a total distance of around 2,700km, choosing to run various races from the Dream Run (5.9km) to the Full Marathon (42.195km).

The Mumbai office managed to increase their participation this year, with more employees taking part than ever before and the number of staff running the full marathon tripling. The amount of women running the half marathon doubled and there was an increase of 1,000 kilometres for total distance covered overall.

This year, funds were raised entirely through employee initiatives and will be donated via the Mumbai Charity Committee towards multiple programmes across India. Each contribution will be matched dollar for dollar by the Trafigura Foundation.

Tata Mumbai Marathon 2018

The participation of Trafigura staff to the 2018 edition of the Tata Mumbai Marathon surpassed all expectations: from a clutch of runners in previous editions, in 2018 140 employees from Mumbai and other Trafigura offices joined the run in a spectacular day of shared efforts.

The fundraising results were also exceptional: the local office was able to collect around USD 400,000, an amount that was doubled by the Foundation through its matching funds'scheme. 
The funds were donated to the following non-profit organisations:

• Arpan is an NGO dedicated to prevent child sexual abuse. Thanks to the generosity of Trafigura Mumbai staff, Arpan will be able to empower children, parents, teachers and school staff through a training programme that helps identify and prevent child sexual abuse.
• Unmeed provides specialised care for children with developmental disabilities through clinical services and targeted support to families. The Mumbai office donated part of its fundraising to help this NGO expand its “Early Childhood Development and Disability” programme to two community-based organizations.
• SEEDS and Khalsa Aid received support from Trafigura staff for their post-disaster relief operations in Kerala, a state severely hit by disastrous floods that caused the displacement of local communities and the loss of many lives.
• Urmi Foundation, a partner of the Trafigura Foundation, provides a better education and future to children with developmental disabilities in the slums of Mumbai. Beside financial support, some local employees have also mentored Urmi staff by providing financial and business management training.

2017 and past charitable initiatives

Boosting economic inclusiveness with Rang De

Our Mumbai colleagues set up a smart partnership with Rang De, a crow-funding and micro-credit platform, to tackle the fraudulent situation affecting the credit system in India. “To support small entrepreneurs and families and prevent them from relying on usurers, we are participating in a micro credit programme promoted on the social platform Rang De” explains Tony Hara, Chairman of the Charity Committee and CEO of Trafigura Global Services. “On this platform, an account has been created for Trafigura employees: everyone can access, visualize the profile of borrowers, where they live, what they want to create with the money they borrow, how much money they need and when they will give you the money back. This is a project we would like to further spread across our office because it can really make the difference for many families while requiring little effort (and expenses) from employees. In India, financial inclusiveness is something very rare and people who are excluded from access to wealth fall into deadly traps of local usurers who ask for absurd interests that borrowers will never afford to pay. Therefore, it is fundamental that people who are financially included share this privilege with those who are excluded”.

The fundraising campaign was successfully achieved with the participation of 333 Trafigura employees and the collection of USD 31,000, an amount that will be doubled by the Foundation’s matching funds scheme. To learn more about the Trafigura campaign visit Rang De’s dedicated page. 

Unlimited social entrepreneurship in India

Socio-economic growth can be addressed also by tapping into the fertile territory of social entrepreneurship. The Mumbai Charity Committee provides invaluable support to one of the Trafigura Foundation’s partner organizations, the launch pad for social entrepreneurs UnLtd India. The Foundation is financing a selected portfolio of 24 projects addressing urgent social issues in India. Managers from the Trafigura’s office in Mumbai have been mentoring some of these projects and sharing their business expertise with social entrepreneurs.

Emergency and Disaster relief

The consistency of the monsoon’s seasonal precipitation can reach catastrophic dimensions, causing major floods that wipe out houses, belongings and lives. In 2017, unprecedented rainfalls hit the zone of Jamur Kashmir and dreadful floods in the Southern region of Chennai were declared a national calamity. The Mumbai staff immediately replied to these events, starting fundraising campaigns with an exemplar readiness and promptness (in Chennai, Trafigura was the first company in India to reach out people hit by the floods), supporting with financial aids the organisations Goonj and Seeds. Another important fundraising action has been undertaken to help the population hit by the 2014 earthquake in Nepal. 

Helping children with special needs

Poverty and the lack of health cares are major plagues affecting Indian people and limiting chances of survival for kids living in slums. This situation is even more dramatic for children with disabilities: the Mumbai Charity Committee decided to support the Urmi Foundation, which help kids with developmental disabilities uplift their academic and social conditions within special schools and communities built around them. Moreover, the Mumbai staff has provided funds and dedicated time to the Desire Society, an organisation that looks after kids with HIV who cannot afford medical healings, and has organised a joyful show over Christmas to cheer up the little guests of the association.