Canon China : CSR through imaging technology promotes teenagers’ growth

Company Profile
Established in March, 1997, Canon China was responsible for Canon’s sales in Chinese market. After years of efforts, its business currently has covered three areas, namely private consumer products, office supplies and industrial products. A sales service network has been established, covering 16 branches, 5 permanent offices, 13 repair centers, and 8 service centers (including the four regional headquarters).
Challenge
Canon has aided to build 9 Hope Schools in China’s remote areas since 1995, helping promoting China’s education development. After the aid, Canon has learned that compared to students living in the cities, children in mountainous areas have limited access to the opportunities from outside world, while quality education focuses on the expansion of horizon and the development of mental growth. Therefore, children should not only be granted equal education resources but also have access to the outside opportunities.
Canon hopes to explore children’s potential to feel beauty, improve people’s understanding of the mental development of children in Hope Schools,  and present the touching moments and happiness brought by image as well as show a more amazing side of the world to people through photography classes and exchanges. In this way, people could like Canon’s brand, and understand its “Kyosei” philosophy as well as its “Delighting You Always” brand appeal.
Solution
Canon believes image is the best approach to transcend language barrier to communicate. Therefore, it takes the advantage of globalization and conducts public welfare projects to teach photography knowledge and skills to teenagers in dozens of countries and regions where Canon develops its business. Since 2008, Canon has designed a series of education support courses in China. With the support of China Youth Development Foundation, since 2009, Canon has joined hands with 100 Hope Schools in China to set up photography classes, and conducted photo exchanges with schools in Japan, Singapore, Vietnam and other countries via photography classes in Asia.
Photography Classes: Discovering Beauty and Love
Photography classes could be divided into 4 parts: in the first part, professional photographers teach children photography skills; in the second part, photographers give out Canon cameras to children so that they could take photos in the school; the third part is to print the photos with Canon printers; the last part is to paste photos on Canon photo exchange cards and write down the description and feelings about the photo. Furthermore, Canon also donates cameras to schools, and teachers collect excellent works regularly for photography exchanges.
In 2012, Canon conducted 11 education support activities and equipment donation events, collected children’s works regularly and interviewed teachers to see if the kids had liked photography and obtained happiness from it.
In Hope Schools, children participating in photography classes have learned to observe the surrounding environment and pay attention to daily life through photography learning. In the follow-up interviews, the teachers mentioned that students participating in photography classes had improved their writing ability greatly.
Photo Exchanges: Sharing Touching Moments and Developing Friendship
After Chinese Hope Schools finished the photography classes, Canon sent the photography works to staff responsible for the exchange project in Japan, Singapore and other countries. They would send photos to schools, and kids could comment on the works. Meanwhile, Canon collected local children’s works, and kids in Chinese Hope Schools would comment on the photos as well. They will understand the living and study conditions and even culture and knowledge in foreign countries.
In photography classes, Canon explains culture of the exchange country to children, as well as the study conditions and after-class life of its schools, helping the children get to know culture in different countries and understanding the differences and similarities in an indirect way via pictures and easy-to-understand descriptions.
Meanwhile, Canon establishes an on-line communication platform to encourage students in various countries to post their photos to share happiness. Furthermore, except that Canon volunteers teach children photography skills, Canon China recruit “Image instructors” among photography enthusiasts through microblog and other channels. The instructors print their own photos with Canon printers, make courseware, and teach geography, history, nature, biology and astronomy with pictures to cultivate children’s ability to discover love, beauty and touching moments.
Achievements
By 2012, over 3,000 students from 100 Hope Schools in China have participated in photo exchanges and selected thousands of excellent works to conduct exchanges with 5 primary schools in Singapore, 3 in Japan and 2 in Vietnam. This year, Canon expanded its exchange range to 9 countries and regions in Asia. Moreover, Canon has conducted more in-depth photography exchanges, inviting foreign students and Asian Canon volunteers working in Beijing to go to Hope Schools and telling stories behind the photos. The exchange and sharing of photos have helped children to improve their ability to observe the surrounding environment and to express their thoughts. As a result, they have increased the knowledge, broadened their horizon and further promoted such interregional and transnational communications and understanding.
Xiaoyu YANG, Executive Vice Secretary-General of China Youth Development Foundation, said that Canon had won the recognition for its trial in educational public welfare undertaking from pilot schools and the Foundation and yielded results in improving children’s ability to observe the surrounding environment and to discover beauty as well as their communication ability. And they believed that children in Hope Schools would open another dream window to see more beautiful colors in their life through Canon’s beauty cultivation project.
Prospect
In the future, Canon will expand its exchange range, not limited to Asia, but to the whole world, so that children from different continents could participate in the photo exchanges, get to know culture in different countries, gain knowledge and help Chinese culture to go global through children’s photos.