Top Page > Press Release 2017 > MOL to Participate in 'Surf for Smile' Project through International Contribution Program 'Sports for Tomorrow' - Transporting 100 donated surfboards to South Africa -

MOL to Participate in 'Surf for Smile' Project through International Contribution Program 'Sports for Tomorrow'
- Transporting 100 donated surfboards to South Africa -

June 06, 2017

TOKYO-Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. (MOL; President & CEO: Junichiro Ikeda) today announced that it will participate in the "Surf for Smile" project, as a consortium member of the international contribution program "Sports for Tomorrow (SFT) (*1) "

The project "Surf for Smile" is donating about 100 surfboards to the non-governmental organization Surfers Not Street Children from the Ichinomiya-cho Surfing Business Union in Japan. The project is an initiative aimed at helping youth in South Africa avoid drugs and violence by exposing them to the joy of surfing and make them live with full of smiles.

On May 27, a ceremony to present the surfboards was held at Tsurigasaki beach. This beach will be the surfing venue for the 2020 Olympics, the first time the sport has been included in the Olympic Games. The ceremony welcomed many guests including Japan Sports Agency Minister Daichi Suzuki, officials from the South African Embassy in Japan, and NGO staffs.

MOL will transport the donated surfboards to South Africa this summer as part of its cooperation in the SFT program. This is the second time MOL has pitched in to help SFT programs, following ocean transport of sporting goods to Ghana last year (*2).

MOL continually takes a proactive stance in social contribution activities that are unique to an ocean shipping company with a global network.


At the ceremony

(*1)The Japanese government is committed to creating our future through the power of sports with more than 10 million people of over 100 countries from 2014 until 2020 at IOC General Meeting. With the Sport for Tomorrow program, Japan aims to be involved in the promotion of sporting values, with coordination between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Sports Agency, including assistance to promoting exchange knowledge and information of administrative organ, universities, and enterprises etc., forming Sports For Tomorrow Consortium (SFTC)
SFT Program HP: http://www.sport4tomorrow.jp/

(*2)Please refer to the press release on November 18, 2016
MOL Cooperates in 'Sports For Tomorrow' International Contribution Program -1st Corporation to Provide Large-scale Ocean Transport for SFT Programs-