Canon launches third Image Bridge project in Vietnam

Under this programme, students from six primary schools representing the northern, central and southern parts of the country will participate in a photography class series held by Canon. The photos taken by Vietnamese students then will be exchanged with those taken by students in Japan and Malaysia. 

The highlight of this activity is to let children develop their photography skills and express themselves through cross-cultural communication. In hopes of transcending language and culture barriers, Canon wishes to encourage the young generation to share their ideas of life through images, via which and a “bridge” between participating countries can be built up and mutual understanding can be fostered.

Apart from spreading the photography love, Canon Image Bridge is also expected to become an exciting extra-curricular playground at primary schools. Via such activity, participating children are encouraged to practise a number of valuable skills such as creative thinking, observing and writing skills.

In addition, their art works will be displayed at a national exhibition as well as exchanged with foreign friends. A special part of this programme is that students can write a message on their photos to share their thoughts, their life and their country of Vietnam with friends overseas.

All of those are not only a great recognition to their first photography efforts but also a memorable remark in their schooling journey.

This year, six schools participating in Canon Image Bridge in Vietnam include Doan Thi Diem and Nguyen Trai School (Hanoi), Dinh Tien Hoang (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City) and Tran Quoc Toan (District 5, Ho Chi Minh City), Hoang Du Khuong (Cam Le district, Danang) and Be Van Dan (Thanh Khe district, Danang) through a three-month journey from now until October.

After the training session, two rounds of photo exchange will take place - national exchange between six participating schools then international exchange with Japan and Malaysia. The project will be wrapped up with an exhibition held in Ho Chi Minh City in January 2015.

Speaking at the launching ceremony in Hanoi, president and CEO of Canon Marketing Vietnam, Nick Yoshida, remarked, "The community project clearly brings in a wonderful playground for primary school children, helping them to familiarise themselves with digital imaging tools, as well as encouraging their creativity and passion for photographic art. Especially, we plan to share the artworks of the participants with children from our two neighboring countries - Japan and Malaysia, promoting mutual understanding among children of different countries and the idea of a peaceful united world.”

Following the ‘Kyosei’ philosophy meaning “living and working for the common good”, which lies at the heart of Canon’s brand, business and sponsorship activities, Canon has organised a number of community projects that span across the fields from supporting to end child poverty, education quality enhancement to natural environment protection.

Canon Image Bridge launched in this year’s third quarter, together with other on-going ones notably the Help with Love programme where Canon builds new classrooms for schools in poor conditions will be meaningful remarks to the journey of Canon “living and working for the common good” in Vietnam.

Canon Marketing Vietnam is part of Canon, a global leader in photographic and digital imaging solutions with a global network of close to 300 companies and employs close to 200,000 people worldwide.