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Canon focusing on young lives

By Chen Jia (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-02 11:07

Hideki Ozawa, president of Canon China, delivered a speech at a Canon-hosted photographic exhibition in Beijing. The exhibited photos were taken by children from more than 20 Chinese Hope schools and nine Japanese primary schools. [Provided to China Daily]

BEIJING - The Japanese multinational company Canon China Co Ltd, which specializes in digital imagery and optical products, has been delighting audiences with a photographic exhibition in Beijing entitled Image - Bridge of Hope.

The pictures were taken by children from 20 Chinese Hope schools and nine Japanese primary schools.

They show the environment around the youngsters' daily lives through their own eyes and feature mountains, rivers, flowers and animals.

Three of the children from Wangping Hope School in Hubei and their teacher were invited by Canon China to the opening, spending Children's Day in Beijing.

"We are moved by the vivid photos taken by the lovely schoolchildren," said Hideki Ozawa, the president of Canon China. "Young children are the hope of a country and Canon pays close attention to the Chinese public welfare of helping the youth from undeveloped regions."

The photographic project started last year. It provided training courses to improve the photographic skills of children from 33 Hope schools in China and will eventually expand to 100 of the charity establishments.

Canon China organized both online and offline image-exchange activities between Chinese and Japanese students.

"I feel more confident after I joined Canon's photographic courses. I am glad to share interesting stories in my photos with friends. And I can discover more beautiful things in my life," said Jiang Jinjing, a student at Wangping Hope School.

"Students in my school are very interested in Canon China's courses. They use images to let children living in other places know the life in mountainous areas. And images help my students go into the outside world," said teacher Chen Cihua.

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Image - Bridge of Hope is the third phase of Canon China's Hope Project. The first phase started in 1995. Canon China donated educational facilities and financial support to build nine Hope Schools. In the second phase from December 2008, Canon China with the help of the China Youth Development Foundation, launched a project called Image - Light of Hope to improve the quality of teaching and set up photographic courses in Hope schools.

Canon says it will take advantage of its global resources and international network to continuously provide image-exchange activities to children from China and Japan. "Images can bring children more happiness. And I hope image-exchange activities can help them know more about each other's lives and enhance their friendship," said Hideki Ozawa.

Canon contributes to the public welfare with images that meet public demand. It has participated in Chinese public welfare projects including environmental protection, cultural exchange and employee-volunteer training. Canon China uses the phrase "Image Public Welfare" to portray its unique sense of corporate social responsibility strategy as a party to the development of Chinese society.