Amazon's new campaign to help needy students continue online education

Through the new Delivering Smiles donation campaign, Amazon customers across India will be able to gift mobile phones and tablet computers in the sub-Rs 10,000 range basis NGO wishlists on Amazon's Gift a smile page or contribute monetarily through Amazon Pay towards smart devices by clicking on the "Donations" button.

Amazon India on Wednesday announced the launch of a new program, Delivering Smiles, to help students from low-income and under-served communities get access to smart devices for continuing their online education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 has disrupted the education of thousands of students across the country with children from low-income communities being the hardest-hit. While schools and colleges remain shut and online learning has become the new normal, students from disadvantaged communities lack the necessary resources to embrace online education.

"The program will make it possible for customers across India to easily give to this cause, offering the choice to gift a device but also making it possible to make smaller contributions that would help provide for these devices by partnering through well-known NGOs," Amazon said in a press release.

Through the new Delivering Smiles donation campaign, Amazon customers across India will be able to gift mobile phones and tablet computers in the sub-Rs 10,000 range basis NGO wishlists on Amazon's Gift a smile page or contribute monetarily through Amazon Pay towards smart devices by clicking on the "Donations" button.

Amazon will kickstart the donation campaign by directly donating more than 5,000 4G-enabled tablet computers to 18 NGOs partnering with government and aided schools as well as childcare centers.

Commenting on the new initiative by Amazon, Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Union Minister for Education, said, "Whilst this crisis has brought unprecedented challenges, it is a pleasure to see Amazon India, continuing to pursue its commitments through initiatives like Delivering Smiles to address the urgent needs of students from low-income and marginalized communities by providing means of education. Initiatives like this address the need of the hour and will help many students to continue their education online."

The new donation program is in addition to the long-running Amazon Gift a Smile program where customers can directly contribute to 50+ NGOs that support a variety of causes. Customers can select an NGO to see the list of items they need and place the order to be delivered to the NGO's address.