Seeing and experiencing is learning in a true sense. Adhering by this, Canon India Involve under ‘Learning Beyond Books’ initiative aims to inspire children to dream bigger and work towards achieving their goals. The initiative was launched to help children go beyond their boundaries and explore the world outside their horizon.
Empowerment is a key focus of Canon India's CSR initiative, the 4Es policy. Through expert-led photography sessions, Canon provides children with opportunities to develop professional skills and explore their creativity.
In 2018, Canon India Involve launched a certificate program in photography for children in conflict with the law. In collaboration with the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of India, the program aims to train children aged 16-18 in protective custody, expanding their horizons and providing them with career opportunities in photography.
Every year, Canon India Involve conducts a comprehensive series of theoretical and practical photography sessions at the Observation Home. During these sessions, children are provided with cameras to explore their creativity, experiment with techniques, and develop new skills. Those who successfully complete the program and pass the evaluations are awarded certificates, empowering them with tangible recognition and a stepping stone toward a future in photography.
With an objective of strengthening our 4Es initiatives and making a long-term sustainable impact on communities, Canon India Involve embarked a new project in association with the United Nations ‘World Food Programme’.
The project involved a two-pronged approach where Canon employees were trained by the UN team under the concept of ‘Train the Trainer’. Employees further trained children of our adopted village Maheshwari, Haryana (North India) so that they can become ‘Ambassadors of Change’ to spread awareness in their respective communities on the perils of Health and Hygiene.
The first leg of the project commenced at Canon India Corporate Office with a training session on ‘Health & Hygiene’ for employees, in the presence of Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO, Canon India and all senior management.
During the session, 47 employees were trained on the basics of personal hygiene, food & water habits, sanitation and clean home & surroundings.Further commencing the second phase of the project, employees from Corporate Office visited Maheshwari village and conducted multiple sessions with the children on ‘Health and Hygiene’. An informative booklet on the topic ‘Health and Hygiene’ consisting of ‘Role Plays’ and ‘Storytelling’ was developed to transmit impactful learning in the children. The booklet focused on the importance of personal hygiene, food and water habits, sanitation and clean home and surroundings. Further, teachers of the Resource Centre conducted repeat training sessions with children for a period of 3 months. Marking the culmination of our first topic, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President and CEO, CIPL, on his visit to the village, was delighted to see the impact of the learnings on children, which was exhibited via skit performance. Our vision is to empower children as ‘Ambassadors of Change’ and enable them to create awareness on important issues influencing lives of their near ones.
As a new milestone in our CSR endeavor, we embarked on a new chapter on ‘Media and Communications’ to enable a platform of experiential learning and providing children with career opportunities in the media industry.
The first leg of the chapter included a visit to the Head Office of Red FM 93.5, the number one radio station in India. 20 selected children from SOS Children’s Village, Faridabad (North India), participated in the activity. Mr. Gary Lee, Vice President & CFO, Canon India joined the activity along with Canon employees to motivate the children.
The 2-hour long activity comprised of an interactive session with prominent radio jockeys, who shared the nuances of their profession with the children. They were also provided the opportunity to visit programming and recording rooms, where live sessions were being conducted. Children shared positive responses after the sessions, where they requested for more such platforms to be created for them.
As the next leg of the initiative, we organized an experiential visit to a leading PR Agency, Genesis BCW, to encourage children to explore career opportunities in Public Relations (PR).
A group of selected 20 children from our SOS Children’s Villages of India participated in the activity. Further, the children interacted with the team through exciting activities to understand the nuances of public relations as a profession and how it helps brands to build a unique niche in the industry. The children were taken on a tour to the office and newsroom, to learn and understand live tracking of news. By the end of the session, children were motivated to explore career prospects in Public Relations.
Moving forward in our endeavors, we organized an educational expedition to a digital agency, RepIndia, to embolden children towards career prospects in digital media. A group of 8 children from SOS Children’s Villages of India (Faridabad – North India), were warmly greeted by the employees of RepIndia. Later, the children were taken on a tour to their office where they interacted with the content writing team, photographers, web designers and advertising team for future career prospects. We aim to undertake more experiential visits like these for children to discover multitude career opportunities available to them.
Further, the team interacted with children through exciting activities about the digital world. The team made them understand digital marketing in detail and how it helps brands to promote themselves to a large group of people. Information was shared about digital media, social media platforms, its usage, how it helps brands to directly interact with its consumers and much more.
An educational excursion was organized for 40 children of SOS Children’s Villages of India, Faridabad (North India) to ‘The Indian Meteorological Department’, Delhi, accompanied by Canon employees.
Children applied their theoretical knowledge with practical understanding on weather forecasting, satellite connection, collection processing and interpretation of meteorological data and other information required for civil aviation.
On the occasion of Children’s Day celebrated on 14th November, an experiential activity was conducted for the children of our adopted villages. We associated with Cinepolis, a leading movie multiplex chain in India, to arrange a special screening of an all-time favorite movie ‘The Lion King’ for children of our four adopted villages.
As cinema is a medium of edutainment and appeals to children, our intent was to take the learning experience a step further. 37 Canon employees enthusiastically came forward to make a memorable experience for 249 children in a special movie screening.
