The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are a common framework that emerged from the combination of the UN Millennium Declaration adopted at the September 2000 UN Millennium Summit, and the goals for international development advanced at key international conferences during the 1990s. Consisting of eight fields such as "Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger," "Achieve Universal Primary Education," and "Reduce Child Mortality," the overarching goal is to meet concrete numerical targets in these areas by 2015. MOL has positioned contributions to the UN Millennium Development Goals as a key principle guiding its social contribution activities, and will move proactively as a company growing in step with global economic and social development to realize these goals.
- Transporting Medical Vehicles to Cambodia
- Transporting Mobile Libraries to South Africa
- Cooperation with UNHCR Activities
- Transporting Shoes for Children in Africa
- Transporting Wheelchairs for the Disabled
- Cooperation in Activities of the Japan Association for WFP
<Other Recent Examples of the Transport of Aid Supplies>
Transporting Medical Vehicles to Cambodia
MOL is helping transport medical vehicles and other cargo to Phnom Penh in support of the certified NPO Side by Side International (SBSI). SBSI receives donations of used ambulances, fire engines, medical equipment and other items in Japan, and sends them mainly to Cambodia. In Cambodia, SBSI is working to build a first-aid system, and support emergency hospitals as well as pregnant women, mothers and children in remote areas with little access to healthcare services. In August 2011, MOL received a commendation from the government of Cambodia for its support of a project to supply the nation with medical vehicles and equipment in Phnom Penh.
Transporting Mobile Libraries to South Africa
Since fiscal 1995, MOL has cooperated in the ocean transport of mobile library vehicles to the Republic of South Africa. 21 vehicles had been shipped by 2008. Since 2009, MOL has taken part in activities by NPO SAPESI-Japan
(South Africa Primary Education Support Initiative) as part of a project initiated to donating 100 such vehicles by 2014.
The SAPESI-Japan project is one component of an ambitious plan to increase literacy led by South Africa's Ministry of Education. Used mobile libraries no longer in use in Japan are acquired and sent to South Africa. Once there, the vehicles, in operation of the Education Ministry, travel to the many elementary and junior high schools across South Africa's provinces that lack libraries. The mobile libraries are warmly welcomed wherever they go, bringing the joy of books to children and helping to improve educational quality.
In cooperation with SAPESI-Japan, MOL utilized its car carriers bound for Africa to deliver 12 mobile library vehicles to the South African port of Durban in fiscal 2009, with plans to assist in shipping another 12 vehicles there in fiscal 2010.
Refer to "Social Contribution Activities - Behind the Scenes of MOL Projects" for background information and post-implementation status regarding this project.
Cooperation with UNHCR Activities
Mr. Amin Awad, Director, Division of Emergency, Security and Supply, spoke with MOL executives during his visit on June 11, 2010.
Since 2006, MOL has assisted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR) through the transport of material aid and other needed assistance.
UNHCR is a UN agency that works to protect and assist refugees forced to flee their homes due to armed conflict or persecution. Over the years, MOL has donated money for the purchase of emergency shelters and cooking stoves, and has transported a total of seven 20-foot equivalent units of containers of these materials free of charge from south China to the UNHCR supply base in the UAE.
In June 2010, Mr. Amin Awad, a director from UNHCR Headquarters, paid a visit to MOL to express appreciation for its ongoing cooperation and support. Going forward, MOL will continue to assist in the activities of the UNHCR through the ocean transport of material assistance to those in need.
Transporting Shoes for Children in Africa
Photo provided by JOICFP
In 2010, MOL began helping in the transport of shoes donated to children in Zambia in support of the project by the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning(JOICFP).
Established in 1968, JOICFP is an international cooperation NGO involved in support activities around family planning and the protection of maternal and child health in developing countries. Today, JOICFP has a dynamic presence in more than 30 countries worldwide. The project to donate shoes to children in Zambia involves the donation to JOICFP of used shoes collected through a trade-in service offered by Sogo & Seibu Co., Ltd. as part of its global contribution commitment. JOICFP then donates the shoes to children in Zambia, where it works closely to safeguard maternal and child health. This initiative has been praised locally as a useful health education measure that helps to prevent parasitic diseases, tetanus and other ailments.
Along with the provision of containers for shipment from Japan free of charge, MOL cooperates in ocean transport to the South African port of Durban, which also serves as the gateway port to Zambia. (Similar cooperation is provided to shipments bound for Ghana and Tanzania.) As children in Japan grow, the shoes they outgrow can now travel across the ocean on MOL container ships to help improve the health and wellbeing of mothers and children in Africa.
Transporting Wheelchairs for the Disabled
MOL provides assistance to Free Wheelchair Mission(FWM), an NPO dedicated to delivering wheelchairs to disabled persons in developing countries. FWM is a U.S.-based NPO established in 2001. The organization's founder devised a method for the low-cost manufacture of wheelchairs. After production at a factory in China, the wheelchairs have since passed through supply bases in the United States on their way to 77 different countries (as of May 2010).
Based on a proposal by U.S.-based subsidiary MOL (America) Inc., MOL began cooperating from 2006 on the transport of wheelchairs procured by FWM in China to the United States. By 2009, MOL had transported twelve 40-foot containers of wheelchairs. In fiscal 2010, MOL plans to assist in the shipment of six 40-foot containers of wheelchairs, including those consigned directly from China to Peru and other South American countries.
Cooperation in Activities of the Japan Association for WFP
MOL has been part of the governing council of the Japan Association for the World Food Programme, a certified NPO, and has cooperated in the organization's activities since 2005. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is a United Nations food support agency with the stated mission of eradicating hunger and poverty. The association is an official coordinator of private-sector support for the programme in Japan.
Over the years, in addition to donations providing food assistance during times of disaster, employee volunteers have taken part in "End Hunger: Walk the World," a charity event to save the world's children from starvation sponsored by the WFP and the association.
Other Recent Examples of the Transport of Aid Supplies
Transporting Medical and Health Supplies to Thailand and Cambodia
Arrival of supplies at the Radjanagarindra Child Development Institute (RICD) under the Thai Ministry of Public Health's Department of Mental Health.
In October 2010, MOL lent its cooperation to the ocean transport of medical masks and other medical and health supplies to Thailand and Cambodia as part of measures to counter infectious disease by certified NPO PH-Japan(PHJ). PHJ's guiding philosophy is a dedication to helping people everywhere live healthy lives, with the NPO supporting developing countries primarily across Asia. The recent shipment of medical masks for distribution to healthcare providers at hospitals and clinics came at the request of both the Thai and Cambodian governments. MOL assisted in the transport of a total of three 20-foot equivalent units of containers of these materials.
Transporting Wheelchairs for Children in Paraguay
Ceremony to gift wheelchairs for children
In December 2010, MOL cooperated with the Volunteers Group to Send Wheelchairs to Overseas Children, a certified NPO, to transport two 40-foot containers of wheelchairs to the landlocked South American country of Paraguay. In Japan, children's wheelchairs tend to be replaced every two to three years as children outgrow them. The situation is different in developing countries, where the high price of these chairs makes them largely unattainable to those in need. As a result, many physically disabled children are unable to venture outside. The wheelchairs transported by MOL were donated to FUNDACIÓN TELETON, a government-certified NPO in Paraguay. In May 2011, His Excellency of the Embassy of the Republic of Paraguay in Japan visited MOL to express his appreciation for the company's cooperation.
Transporting Shoes to Children in Kenya
In December 2010, MOL offered transportation assistance in support of the "Smile Africa Project," sponsored by the monthly SOTOKOTO magazine. United behind the slogan, "Donating shoes that bring smiles to children," the project collects unneeded shoes at schools and other sites across Japan to donate to children forced to go shoeless or very nearly so in developing countries. MOL transported a 20-foot container filled with children's shoes and the heartfelt wishes of those donating them to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
Transporting Material Assistance to Africa from Hong Kong
In December 2010, MOL assisted in transporting material assistance (two 40-foot containers) bound for Zambia from Hong Kong-based charitable organization Crossroads Foundation to as far as Tanzania. The foundation collects unused furniture, school supplies, clothing and other items from within Hong Kong for distribution to orphanages, schools, clinics, disaster victims and others in need within Hong Kong, mainland China and overseas. Based on a proposal by local subsidiary in Hong Kong MOL (Asia) Ltd., MOL decided to lend its cooperation to the foundation's work, which takes advantage of Hong Kong's geographic position as a global hub for container transport.
Transporting Clothing for Children in Tanzania
MOL provides transport assistance for With All Our Hearts(*), an international contribution project sponsored by Japan's Ministry of Justice. In this project, second-hand children's clothing salvaged by MIKI HOUSE Co., Ltd. at its 150 retail stores across Japan is sent to the Mine Rehabilitation Program Center in Yamaguchi Prefecture, where it is washed, sorted, embroidered and packaged by women correctional inmates. The clothing is then donated to children in Tanzania, where international cooperation NGO JOICFP is involved in support activities around health maintenance and sanitation. MOL's assistance ranges from the provision of a container for shipment from Japan free of charge to the ocean transport of this container to Tanzania. (The shipment is scheduled for February 2011.)
(*) The Ministry of Justice has issued a press release on the project.
