MOL Pitches in to Provide Ocean Transport of Children's Clothing Donations for Tanzania

TOKYO - Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President: Koichi Muto) today announced that the company is joining the "With All Our Hearts^*1" international contribution project to recycle children's clothing, and will assist with transportation of the clothing. The project is sponsored by Japan's Ministry of Justice.

This project aims to donate second-hand children's clothing collected at 150 Miki House Co., Ltd. stores throughout Japan. The items will be washed, sorted, repaired, and packaged by female inmates at the Mine Rehabilitation Program Center^*2 and distributed to children in Tanzania, where the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP)^*3 supports health- and hygiene-related initiatives. MOL, one of eight private companies and organizations backing the project, will provide a container and transport the clothing from Japan to Tanzania in March 2011.

In addition to benefiting maternal and child health education in Tanzania, the project will provide job training to the inmates in Japan and help them prepare for a fresh start in life as they re-enter society.

"Contribution to the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals" and "Contribution to local communities" are part 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 contribute to solutions of domestic and international societal issues and sustainable growth of economy and societies as a good corporate citizen.

*1 The Ministry of Justice announced this project at a press conference today.

*2 Mine Rehabilitation Program Center
Japan's first public/private penal institution operated under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) method. The center opened in April 2007 in City of Mine, Yamaguchi Prefecture.

*3 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.