Picturing a better image tomorrow

A child at a Canon Hope School learns to take photos with a Canon camera, in the "Image-Light of Hope" program. Filephoto

Scientific research has shown that children respond most easily to images, rather than spoken or written communications, especially as their ability to process abstract thinking is still developing.

Based on that insight and Canon's strength as a world leading photo company, it unveiled the "Image-Light of Hope" program at the end of 2008 to support children in Canon rural Hope Schools and those in urban China to communicate via photos and videos in an effort to help them to vividly exchange ideas, as well as expand their perspectives.

Education project

The China Youth Development Foundation and Psychology Department of Peking University are cooperating with the project.

The China Youth Development Foundation initiated Project Hope to raise money to establish primary schools in China's poverty-stricken rural areas. It coordinates relations with Canon, the schools and local governments.

Psychologists from Peking University are conducting research on children's imaging education and will help guide course formulation and use the information gathered from the the children and teachers.

In addition to financial support, Japan-headquartered Canon has sent digital camera equipment and technology and company volunteers will go to the schools as photography teachers.

Lu Jie, assistant director of Canon China's Corporate Communications Division, said the "Image-Light of Hope" has begun at three Canon Hope Schools in rural Hebei and Jiangsu provinces and Chongqing municipality. The company has also established relations with three primary schools in Beijing, Nanjing and Chengdu.

Students will exchange their works via the Internet and on-line group chats in an effort to have the children from the different villages and cities get to know and understand one another better.

"We are considering organizing exchange visits for face-to-face communications, as the program develops," Lu told China Business Weekly.

A psychological team led by Wu Yanhong, professor of Peking University's Psychology Department, is using the research for a study called "Influences of imaging education on children's growth".

The program will be extended later to all of Canon's 10 Hope Schools and promoted to another 100 Hope Schools around China thanks to the Hope Schools network through the China Youth Development Foundation.

Initiators of the "Imaging-Light of Hope" hope the project can eventually be used in more schools around China as a way of making full educational use of new information technologies.

Using business strength to carry out corporate social causes is a common strategy for multinational companies. Hewlett & Packard donates computers to Hope Schools and offered long-term technological maintenance services for them. Bayer establishes various kinds of medical research centers in domestic hospitals and universities and Ericsson supports wireless IT construction in China's rural areas to help poverty relief.

Imaging CSR

Education is just one part of Canon's "Imaging CSR (corporate social responsibility)" strategy in China.

"We believe that imaging is more than just a hi-tech pursuit, it brings happiness, communication, and discovery, and is key to the development of a harmonious society," said Hideki Ozawa, CEO and president with Canon China Co Ltd.

Keeping in line with the "Imaging CSR" tactic, the multinational has also supported a number of environmental and cultural projects through photography and video work.

In 2004, it began sponsoring the China Wildlife Photography Training Camp, providing professional training for volunteer nature photographers. All equipment and training fees are paid by Canon China.

In July of 2008, it established the Imaging Protecting Environment Alliance, working with organizations like World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Wild China Film and Sohu.com, to use advanced technology to help catalogue wildlife images and protect eco-diversity in China.

Canon China and WWF also collaborated to create and promote the first Chinese-language environmental education website for children, which was opened in Sept, 2008.

It includes a professional studio focusing on recording images of China's endangered wildlife, collecting a photo database on Chinese wildlife and all the photos are exhibited on the Sohu.com "green channel" for the public.

Since coming to China at end of 1970s, Canon has set up 16 subsidiaries, two offices and a training center on the mainland, with sales reaching $1 billion as of 2007.

Despite the global financial crisis, its business in China has not yet witnessed a slowdown, claims Ozawa.

In December of 2008, sales of single-lens reflex cameras were up 50 percent compared to a year earlier.

"All our social causes in China will continue in the next few years, despite the global economic turndown. And we believe our performance in China will continue to grow - at least 20 percent annually in the coming years," he said.

(China Daily 01/12/2009 page8)