Canon CSR initiative adopts a village in Thane

Canon India’s flagship CSR program, ‘Adopt a Village’ recently took Karanjoti village in the Thane district of Mumbai, Maharashtra under its wings. Kazutada Kobayashi, president and CEO, Canon India inaugurated the program. Village adoption initiative started in 2012. It has already made a difference to Ferozpur Namak village in Haryana and Maharaja Katte village in Bengaluru.

Speaking about the programme, Kobayashi said, “Canon has been in India for close to two decades now and we are committed to giving back as much as possible to the community. There are many ways to measure success and at Canon India, we want to contribute by making Indian villages become self-reliant. The latest addition to our holistic ‘Adopt a Village’ program is the Karanjoti village in Maharashtra. In the past two years, our efforts under this program have shown outstanding results in Haryana as well as Bengaluru, particularly with regards to improvements in school enrollment, infrastructure and the functioning of the Vision Center. We are keen to bring about the same positive change in Karanjoti and in as many other villages as possible. Our target is to have six villages under the ‘Adopt a Village’ program by 2016."

Canon has also taken the first step towards improving the village environment by planting tree saplings in order to create a green haven in the area. Going forward, general health and sanitation awareness will be promoted through active collaboration with the community.

“Businesses must reconnect company success with concerted efforts to improving the society they operate in. Canon’s corporate philosophy of “Kyosei” means living and working together for the common good. Our CSR initiatives also reflect a similar sentiment. We work hard to ensure that we undertake the relevant steps to help our ‘adopted’ villages become progressive self-reliant rural communities. The goodwill generated by this lends a positive vibe to our entire business and all our stakeholders feel a sense of pride in having contributed meaningfully to their community”, Kobayashi added further.

Over the next three years, the aim is to improve the school enrollment ratio by ensuring inclusive, quality education and dependable infrastructure. Organizing capacity building for teachers and sensitizing the students as well as the larger community will play an important role.

The newly inaugurated Vision Centre, being set up by Canon India will provide eye care facilities to the villagers of Karanjoti and neighboring areas. The activities of the Vision Center will be monitored by a designated city hospital. Canon will make arrangements such that patients needing further investigations or surgery will be transferred to better equipped hospitals.