"Mizuiku - I love clean water 2016", an education project to promote children’s awareness of water conservation concluded on December 27 in HCM City. — Photo Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam
More than 12,200 students of five primary schools in Binh Chanh and 8 districts in HCM City benefited from an education project, "Mizuiku - I love clean water 2016".
The project, which was promoting children’s awareness of water conservation over the past year, was jointly implemented by the districts’ education and training divisions and the Suntory Group and Suntory PepsiCo Viet Nam Beverage and Tuong Lai Centre. It wrapped up on December 27 in HCM City.
In 2016, more than 12,200 students attended teaching classes on water resource protection through many activities such as water festivals, factory tours and other outdoor activities. As a result, the District No.8 and Binh Chanh education and training departments have decided to expand the project to all primary schools in the area.
“We received positive feedback from participating schools, and students, and the commitment of two local education departments to remain and expand the project model to the whole area,” Takenobu Shiina, senior general manager, Planning Department, Corporate Communication Division of Suntory Holdings Limited.
“What makes us even happier is the visible improvement in the students’ awareness on water resource protection. They now know how to save water, and water usage at participating schools has seen a sharp decrease compared to the figure prior to project implementation,” Shiina said.
“All of my colleagues look forward to every teaching class of Mizuiku because we have a chance to draw pictures, play games, make presentations, and carry out experiments on our own, while observing facts around us,” said Nguyen Ngoc Truong Vi from Qui Duc Primary School, Binh Chanh District.
Mizuiku is a water education programme that has been successfully deployed in Japan since 2004 by Suntory Group and has been highly appreciated by the community with the participation of over 100,000 students and guardians in Japan.
During 2015 and 2016, the project organised 400 training classes for over 5,000 students, 16 water education festivals for more than 7,700 students, and 15 factory tours with 1,500 students. It also helped building 8 new water filtering systems and upgrading 10 restrooms for 16 schools. Thousands of students and local people benefited from a series of programmes, such as recycle day, children’s healthcare festival and lakes clean-up day.
Viet Nam is the first country other than Japan to develop this project. Suntory plans to implement the project on a nationwide scale in the next three years with funding by Suntory and Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam. Ben Tre will be project destination in 2017. – VNS