NEW DELHI: Canon India Pvt. Ltd, India’s leading Digital Imaging Company celebrates yet another milestone today, with the completion of four successful years of its flagship CSR initiative, ‘Adopt a Village’.
With a vision to uplift the social fabric of the country, Canon commenced its intervention in Ferozepur Namak village in Mewat, Haryana in the November, 2012. Taking its commitment a step ahead, Canon announced the launch of a vocational training program to empower the youth in the villages.
Over the years, Canon has adopted 4 villages across the country namely; Ferozepur Namak in Haryana, Maharaja Katte in Bangalore, Karanjoti in Thane, Maharashtra, and Sol Gohalia in West Bengal. The vision with the adoption is to redefine the lives of people in and around the village by providing them with facilities for a self- sustainable living.
Speaking about the landmark being celebrated for Canon’s efforts towards social commitment, Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO, Canon India, said, “Our consistent efforts towards making villages self-reliant have shown stupendous results. As we touch the landmark of four years of ‘Adopt a Village’ today, I am delighted to announce the launch of a skill development training program at our first adopted village. Under this program, we are providing computer training to the students and villagers, supporting them to become empowered in the long run. Having introduced our social trajectory with ‘empowerment’ this year, we are confident that the vocational training centre will contribute towards building a sustainable future for the community. With continued focus on eye care, education, environment and now empowerment, it also gives me immense pride to witness the dedicated efforts by our employees across the country.”
“With our resource centres focusing on holistic development of the children, we are happy to see them grow into confident individuals. We believe in growth and learning in all forms, the celebration of the anniversary along with Children’s Day is our acknowledgement that these kids have to be nurtured right for a bright future of the country.” He further added.
In a span of last four years, Ferozepur Namak village has witnessed several discernible impacts in three core areas including Education, Environment and Eye Care. A library for academic and resource center for extra-curricular activities, provision of clean drinking water through RO, installation of solar panels, separate toilets for girls, deployment of rain water harvesting and installation of solar enabled lights in the school campus are some infrastructural developments leading to the improved enrolment of children in the school. Canon vision centre regularly conducts awareness programs and screening camps in schools in Ferozepur Namak and other neighbouring villages. Till date over 11000 patients have been screened at the vision centre, with 566 total surgeries conducted.
Along with the launch of the vocational training centre, a cricket match, cultural performances, tree plantation drive were organised to ensure that the anniversary celebrations are in full galore. Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi handed over the sports kit to the school principal to ensure active participation of children in sports. Canon employees actively engaged in the celebrations and showed their support for the community development endeavour.
Strengthening Canon’s vision of ‘4E’s- Education, Environment, Eye Care and Empowerment, the company reinforces its commitment to furthering long term, sustainable development in every village it adopts.
In the coming year, Canon plans to amplify its efforts aimed at serving the society with greater focus on health & hygiene among school students through renewed efforts.
