Rolls out ‘3e’ thrust in its ‘iCare’ CSR initiative viz Education, Environment and Eye Care; Lays the foundation stone of the activity centre for children; inaugurates the Vision Centre to provide eye care facilities to primary and nearby villages; Engages employees in its Bangalore office as well as business partners in this unique CSR initiative
IndiaCSR News Network
BANGALORE: After successfully implementing its ‘Adopt a village’ program near Delhi, Canon India today announced the adoption of Maharaja Katte Village at Kanakapura district of Bangalore. The campaign, which has been launched under iCare, the CSR wing of Canon India, aims to support the village with core interventions in Education Environment and Eye care for a period of three years. Canon India has been involved in various community welfare programs in the past and this project is an attempt to build a progressive self-reliant rural community.
With the adoption of the village school as the first step in this direction, Canon India focuses to improve the quality of education that would positively affect the lives of children in the school adopted in the village. The school adoption program by Canon India aims to educate and provide better infrastructure to make the school more conducive to learning and fun to attend. Canon aims to expand facilities in this school by way of an activity centre for children with sports equipment, art and craft material and books, drawing books and colours.
Speaking on the occasions, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President and CEO, Canon India said, “We, at Canon, believe that organizations should focus not only on the economic well-being of the nation it operates in, but also upon its social fabric. As a responsible business, Canon India takes pride in being socially inclined and focuses on sustained and effective CSR projects. In line with this thought process, Canon has created this unique CSR initiative, where we adopt a village to bring about a big transformation in the lives of the people living here. The project involves engagement with children to enhance their education as well as providing eye care facilities and supporting the environment in the village. The first village we adopted was near Delhi and today is a proud day for us as we are expanding this project to its 2nd phase and focusing our energies in Bangalore. With the adoption of a Higher Secondary School, we plan to provide the best of facilities to the students of Maharaja Katte village. As a part of a holistic development plan for the village, Canon India will work in the area of improving enrolment of children in the school and facilitating inclusive and quality education to optimize age-appropriate learning of each child. We wish to equip these children to continue their further studies in a public school. We will also plant trees in the village to improve the environment conditions and finally, we are setting up a vision centre to provide eye care facilities to the village and surrounding areas.”
As a part of the immediate steps at the village school, Canon India seeks to implement a wide range of activities to improve the quality of education for all children. This will include need analysis of children, teachers, school, family members of children and community; construction of a resource centre for activity learning; provision of safe drinking water; improving general sanitation; sensitisation of teachers, parents and community members; community education; active advocacy and involvement of local government machinery, especially education authorities for school improvement.
In view of the lack of healthcare facilities available in the village, Canon will also establish a ‘Vision Centre’ which will serve as a primary health centre providing comprehensive eye check-ups to all sections of the village community. This Vision Centre will also extend its services to the cluster villages around the Maharaja Katte village.
“Our CSR policy reflects our corporate philosophy of “Kyosei” which means living and working together for the common good”. Through this project we are aiming to adopt villages in different parts of the country and contribute to the well-being of the community as well help them become self-sustainable after a while. We also hope to create goodwill from this initiative and earn more customers for our company. We believe that we should create pride in the minds of all those, who associate with us and such community initiatives bring a positive vibe to our business”.Mr. Kobayashi further added.
We also plan to interact with the village community closely so that with their active participation, we can promote eye care and help prevent blindness. The activities of the Vision Centre will be monitored by the base hospital. All patients needing further investigations or surgery will be taken to level 2 hospitals.
The above interventions will have the complete support of Canon India and its employees. Employee volunteering opportunities will be organized in both the school and the eye care center to build a close connection between the employees and the villagers. Canon employees in the Bangalore office and the company’s partners in this region, will engage in this unique CSR initiative through activities such as planting of saplings along with Mr Kobayashi himself, as a step for saving and contributing for a healthy and safe environment.
With this adoption, the company has added yet another milestone to its Corporate Social Responsibility programs and aims to expand these further in the country.
