MOL Steps up to Transport Shoes for African Children

TOKYO - Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President: Koichi Muto) today announced the company's agreement to cooperate on a Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP^*1) project to distribute shoes to needy children in Zambia. MOL will provide transport service for the shoes.

Sogo & Seibu Co., Ltd. donates used shoes collected through its trade-in service to JOICFP as part of its global contribution activities. JOICFP provides those shoes to children in Zambia, where it conducts healthcare support activities. The project has won praise in Zambia for promoting health education for prevention of tetanus and parasite-related health problems, and so on.

MOL will provide containers in service for the shoes, and transport them by sea to the port of Durban, South Africa, a gateway port to Zambia. On August 17, soccer balls and other supplies^*2 collected at Sogo & Seibu department stores based on a World Cup-related initiative, as well as children's shoes, were loaded on the containership MOL Empire in the Port of Tokyo.

"Contribution to the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals" is one of the stated goals of MOL's social contribution activities. The UN Millennium Development Goals aim to achieve measurable targets such as eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, combating diseases, and reducing child mortality by 2015. MOL will work proactively on activities that help achieve those goals as it grows in step with the development of the global economy and societies around the world.

*1 JOICFP:

The Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning is a non-governmental organization (NGO) aiming to contribute to the welfare of local residents by conducting research related to family planning and maternal and child health in developing nations, and by providing the necessary aid. It was founded in 1968 and conducts activities in nearly 30 nations worldwide.

*2 MOL will also cooperate on transport of soccer balls and other items to Tanzania and Ghana.