Marks the first anniversary of the adoption of Karanjoti Village. Celebrated the day with shoes, socks, bags and spectacles donation drive. To intensify efforts for further development of the village and communities in coming years.
IndiaCSR News Network
MUMBAI: Canon India celebrated the first anniversary of adoption of Karanjoti Village at Thane district in Mumbai, Maharashtra, recently. This is yet another milestone in Canon India’s flagship programme ‘Adopt a Village’. Canon India has so far adopted 4 villages in the country; Ferozepur Namak in Haryana, Maharaja Katte in Bangalore, Karanjoti in Maharashtra and Sol Gohalia in Kolkata to support the village with better education facilities, sustainable environment, health and hygiene along with complete eye care facilities.
Nearly a year back, Canon India adopted Karanjoti village to redefine the lives of people in and around the village by providing them with facilities for a well-developed and sustainable living. Karanjoti Village has seen numerous noteworthy developments, since its adoption by Canon India.
To mention a few, capacity building in the school has led to students returning to the village school to enjoy better classroom infrastructure, clean drinking water supply, a resource centre with a non-formal education teacher to impart computer literacy, art and craft skills and encouraging sports among the students of all grades along with a vision centre for better eye care services.
The special day was marked with celebration, enthusiasm and renewed energy amongst one and all. More than 40 Canon India employees visited the village to celebrate the special day with their Karanjoti family. School children brimming with vigour gave a warm welcome to the employees with regional dance performances.
A carom and quiz competition was organised, where the students participated and won accolades and trophies for their performance. There was an exemplary display of experiments such as electromagnet, heat conduction and water purification by the students under the guidance of their teacher in a science exhibition. An art and craft exhibition in which students showcased various art & craft work, learnt by them in the resource centre, received praise from one and all present during the event. All the school children were handed over a pair of new school bags, shoes and socks as a small token of encouragement and appreciation. Ensuring a progressive way forward for the young lives, Canon identified children with refractive errors and provided spectacles, during free eye check-up camp conducted in the school.
Speaking about Canon’s efforts in this direction, Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO, Canon India, said, “Adopt a Village initiative is our way to ignite the passion to live a healthy informed life. Our vision of develop the communities around us has brought us a long way. The anniversary celebration at Karanjoti village stands testimony to our efforts and accomplishments in the communities we serve. As we come by a year, it is truly overwhelming and satisfying to see the outcomes of our various endeavours.”
“Every village we adopt is part of the extended Canon family. Our employees take equal interest in engaging with the villagers to create awareness and educate them about the basics of living a holistic life. We aspire to continue of dedicated efforts in various villages as to achieve an all-round development for the community,” he further added.
Canon India has become a successful catalyst of change at Karanjoti village. Not just the students and the school, the village has witnessed many developmental activities throughout the year. Solar panels have been set up in two buildings where there was no electricity, new water tanks and water purifiers have been installed and toilets have been re-constructed along with new doors. Pursuing the facilitation of eye care facilities, the vision centre in the village has screened around 62 villagers during the last one year. With the participation of more than 80 students, 40 employees and 85 villagers, Karanjoti anniversary celebration was a notable event in the CSR journey of Canon India.
‘Canon India Involve’, as the name suggests, involves its employees in every initiative of the company. It is the support of the employees that makes the CSR initiatives a success every time. Employees frequently visit the school’s resource centre to organize interactive sessions and campaigns with the school children.
In the past, activities like ‘Wash Campaign’ was organised to highlight the importance of good hygiene among students and ‘Earth Hour 2016’ was celebrated with the students emphasising the need to conserve electricity in the village. On many occasions, employees also mingled with students through games like cricket and badminton, distributed gifts and donated sports equipment for the resource centre. Engagement activities like these help to build a close connection with the children and further develop a vibrant culture of social responsibility that already exists in the company.
Canon India envisions continuing focused energies and efforts in serving the society and being the light of change.
However, to make any successful impact, support from the village residents has always played a pivotal role. Hence, the below excerpts from the village’s stakeholders speak about their continuing commitment towards accepting the constructive change.
Madan Sabale, School Principal, said, “I am very happy that we are getting constant support from Canon for last one year and we can see significant changes and developments taking place in the school. I look forward to a similar support in the years to come for taking the students to the next level in terms of studies, sports and confidence.”
Aniket, a student, joyfully added, “I am feeling very excited as I got a prize in the intra-school Carom competition held during the event today and also, happy to get new shoes, socks and bag which I will start using from the new academic session.”
Sindhu Tai Pawar, a Patient at Canon Vision Centre, said, “I was happy to see an eye care centre in the village and very much satisfied with the support extended by Canon vision centre towards my successful cataract operation at the hospital. I have quite a clear vision post-surgery and can do my household chores in a much better manner.”
Canon India Pvt. Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of Canon Singapore Pvt. Ltd., is a world leader in imaging technologies. Set up in 1997, Canon markets over 200 comprehensive range of sophisticated contemporary digital imaging in India. The company today has offices and warehouses in 14 cities across India and employs over 1000 people. Canon has over 500 primary channel partners, 14 National Retail Chain partners, and over 6000 secondary retail points. Canon has 185 own retail stores called the Canon Image Square across 86 cities in the country. Canon’s service reach extends to over 5000 towns with 18 Canon camera service centres and 37 printer Canon Care Centres. Canon India also has 141 authorized service centres for printers and 175 camera collection points.
In sync with its corporate tagline- ‘ Delighting You Always’ , reinforced by World class technology, Canon offers an extended product portfolio, including copier MFDs, fax-machines, printers, scanners, All-in-ones, digital cameras, DSLR, Cinematic imaging products, camcorders, cable ID printers and card printers catering to the multiple market segments of consumer, SME, B2B, Government & Commercial. Canon India recorded revenue of INR 2158 crores in the year 2015.
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