Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, CEO and President, with children in Maheshwari Village (Credit: Canon India Pvt. Ltd.)
Canon India has announced the adoption of a new village under its flagship CSR initiative – ‘Adopt a Village’.
Through this initiative, the organisation has been demonstrating its commitment towards the community, across the country. The new village is adopted in the north region’s Maheshwari Village at Rewari district of Haryana.
Along with this initiative, Canon India also announces its association with Humana People to People (HPPI), a not-for-profit organisation, focused on community development over the past two decades. Its mission is to unite with people in India in order to create development in the broadest sense through the implementation of projects that aim at transferring knowledge, skills and capacity to individuals and communities. HPPI will support Canon’s efforts in the direction of strengthening the social fabric of the country, under its 4E’s including Education, Eye Care, Environment and Empowerment.
Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President and CEO, Canon India stated, “Our flagship initiative for social development ‘Adopt a village’ has witnessed several milestones over the last six years. With our first adopted village in Haryana- Ferozepur Namak reaching a self-sustainable model and the new village Maheshwari joining us, we see commendable progress in this outreach. Last year, we marked two decades of our existence in the country; this glorious milestone has been possible with the support of our partners, employees and the community. Our latest initiative in the direction of social welfare is ‘learning beyond books’, where we will be making the children in our adopted villages witness the world outside their horizons. With educative trips outside their homes and school boundaries, we aim to help the children aspire more, dream bigger and work harder towards achieving their dreams. I am optimistic our NGO partner- HPPI, will support us in fulfilling our responsibility.”
The event witnessed Mr. Kobayashi’s visit to the village and announcement of the new village and the NGO. Children welcomed Canon India employees at the village and performed on stage, to commemorate the occasion. A tree planting ceremony was also organised, where over 50 saplings were planted by the Canon India leadership and employees, seeding the first step towards environment conservation.
As part of the immediate steps of improvement, Canon India seeks to implement a wide range of activities at the school and the village, under its four core focus areas, including Education, Eye Care, Environment and Empowerment.
- Education would start with the establishment of a ‘Resource Centre’ with learning and playing material accessible to the children. Remedial education will be provided to identify children in the school, where they would be able to get teaching assistance in the school.
- Eye Care would lead to the establishment of a ‘Vision Center’ to enable free-of-cost eye check-ups for the villagers and children, under the supervision of an eye technician. The activities under the domain would also include health camps and health-related awareness sessions.
- Environment activities would involve regular tree plantation drives, quarterly mass scale village cleanliness drives accompanied with environmental awareness which would be conducted with the involvement of Canon employees. Establishment of kitchen gardens, formation of common garbage pits and installation of solar panels would also be initiated.
- Under Empowerment, digital education, basic and financial literacy and tailoring and design training would be provided to identify community members, to support self-sustainable living. ‘Learning beyond books’ initiative will also witness its expansion under this ambit.
Like all its adopted villages, Canon India would be strictly scrutinising and monitoring the progress of its endeavours. Apart from Maheshwari, the OEM has adopted a number of villages across the country, including Sol Gohalia village near Kolkata, Maharaja Katte village near Bengaluru and Karanjoti village near Mumbai. All the villages are situated in close proximity to Canon India offices. Employees across the locations regularly visit the children in the villages and educate them on the importance of health, hygiene and other important aspects of learning which would contribute to their growth and development. Fun activities like cricket, football tournaments are organised for ensuring overall development of the children.
