Education, Welfare, and Environment

Education   Environment   Welfare

Education

We work to encourage the growth of children—the stewards of the future—and educate employees on how to foster a nurturing spirit themselves.

Participating in Initiatives to Deliver Picture Books to Children in Asia

Rendering picture books they enjoyed as children into local languages makes participants happy, too

Since 2007, Toyota Tsusho has taken part in the Campaign to Deliver Picture Books, which is run by the Shanti Volunteer Association. This initiative delivered Japanese picture books, with stickers bearing local-language translations, to children in other Asian countries. In addition to sharing the joy of reading picture books, the program is helping to raise the literacy rate.

In fiscal 2010, 447 employees took part in this campaign, which donated 601 picture books to children in Myanmar and Cambodia. Participants commented that "I enjoyed taking part." and "thinking of the local children makes me happy."


Smiling as they work, thinking of children in Southeast Asia		  
Children at a refugee camp in Myanmar reading a picture book ©Yoshifumi Kawabata

We provide scholarships to students in Kenya to help educate the people who will contribute to their country's development.

Students who received Toyota Kenya Fund scholarships

Toyota Tsusho believes that education is one of the most important ways in which it can promote development in poverty-stricken Africa. To this end, in 1990 Toyota Tsusho set up a scholarship system, the Toyota Kenya Fund, to help educate the youth who hold the keys to their country's future, but might otherwise find it economically difficult to further their education. Between the time it was established and 2008, the fund had supported the education of 257 people.

In fiscal 2010, the fund provided scholarships to 25 youths, studying in such fields as medicine, engineering and the environment.

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Environment

We take part in a host of environmental preservation initiatives as we work to pass on a beautiful earth to future generations.

We planted 1,100 saplings to assist in the reforestation of Mt. Fuji.

Wood guards, which keep deer from damaging the newly planted saplings

Since fiscal 2008, Toyota Tsusho has been taking part in the Mt. Fuji Reforestation Project, conducted by OISCA-International. In cooperation with several companies, the organization is working toward the reforestation of a 100-hectare area near the village of Narusawa, in Yamanashi Prefecture, that has suffered damage from disease and pests.

Fiscal 2010 was the second consecutive year in which our efforts in this project have involved reforestation. Some 92 of our employees and their family members from Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and other parts of Japan took part in the project, in which we aimed to plant 1,100 trees over a period of approximately two hours.


Employees gather for a photo, with Mt. Fuji in the background

We support an NGO that is clearing away landmines in the African country of Angola.

Clearing away landmines in Angola

Since 2008, Toyota Tsusho has been a corporate member of the Japan Mine Action Service (JMAS), an NPO that works to clear away landmines in various parts of the world. We support the organization's activities in Angola.

In addition to clearing away landmines, the NPO regional reconstruction activities in Angola include helping to build roads, clear arable land and build school facilities. Toyota Tsusho supports these efforts by providing and maintaining vehicles, which are essential to the effort, as well as by donating staff quarters.

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Welfare

Toyota Tsusho aims to build a harmonious society filled with smiling faces.

The employee cafeteria of our Tokyo Head Office participates in the TABLE FOR TWO program to provide school lunches to children in developing countries.

Toyota Tsusho participates in the TABLE FOR TWO (TFT) program, which has the dual aims of helping to alleviate starvation in developing countries and fighting obesity and lifestyle diseases in developed countries. The program, conducted by the NPO TABLE FOR TWO INTERNATIONAL, involves setting healthy menu standards for meals at participating employee cafeterias. Each time an employee orders one of these healthy meals, a ¥10 donation from the price of the meal is matched by ¥10 from the Company. The resulting ¥20 donation is enough to provide one meal to a schoolchild in Africa.

In fiscal 2010, the employee cafeteria at our Tokyo Head Office joined our Nagoya Head Office as a TFT program participant. During the year, 14,150 healthy meals were consumed through this program, providing an equal number of school lunches in Africa.

We support microfinance as a way to fight poverty.

Toyota Tsusho supports a microfinance initiative through the NPO PlaNet Finance Japan. Microfinance is designed to help alleviate poverty by providing small, low-interest loans to help fund poverty-stricken people's efforts to improve their plight. Continuing on from our fiscal 2009 efforts, in fiscal 2010 we helped to fund a project involving the use of biodiesel fuel to supply power to a region of Benin, Africa, without access to electricity.

In fiscal 2011, we will begin supporting a program called University Meets PlaNet Finance (UMPF). Targeting Japanese university students having an interest in microfinance, this program teaches students about microfinance and alleviating poverty, as well as other methods of using business to encourage sustainable development.

In Hong Kong, we participated in a charity walk to provide donations for disadvantaged children and related institutions.

In January 2011, 23 employees of our wholly owned Hong Kong subsidiary, Toyota Tsusho (Hong Kong) Corporation, participated in a 10 kilometer charity walk sponsored by The Community Chest of Hong Kong, an organization affiliated with the government of Hong Kong. Money raised through the walk was donated to disadvantaged children and facilities that support them.

In addition to their own offerings, employees solicited donations from friends and family members. The volunteers raised a total of HK$5,360 in donations.

Chicken breast fillets stewed with eggplant, a popular TABLE FOR TWO menu offering

  

Using microfinance to help people get into business (Benin, Africa)

TFT donations providing school meals for children in Africa

  

Learning about social welfare by participating in a charity walk
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