Suntory helps improve water awareness of over 1,600 primary school students

Participating teachers appreciated that the students improved their awareness on water saving, protecting and preservation.

“We have observed visible improvements in pupils’ awareness such as they know to cherish water and keep their school rest room clean all day,” said Le Thi Chinh, teacher at Le Thanh B Primary School, My Duc district.

“We are also impressed by the project creative hands-on education model of “learning through playing”. These diverse and fresh activities motivate pupils to learn and actively participate in classes. Our teachers are also inspired by and learn much from the Mizuiku pedagogy,” she added.

In 2015, Mizuiku has efficiently organised 60 water teaching classes with the participation of over 1,600 pupils throughout 120 indoor and outdoor lessons. Apart from teaching classes, the project offers pupils a wide range of practical outdoor activities like six Festivals of Clean Water Protector, 12 factory tours to SPVB’s plant in Bac Ninh for 600 best pupils, the writing contest, the drawing contest, creating the school newspaper and writing diaries during the summer holiday.

“Previously I just know the existence of fresh water for drinking and salty water from the sea. Now I understand more about water resources in the nature and water can be exhausted. We need to save and protect water resources to have clean water for good health,” said Do Minh Phu, pupil at class 4A, Do Dong Primary School, Thanh Oai district, who participated in the project since its launch in March 2015.

Mizuiku 2015 also renovated school infrastructures and school rest rooms. The program donated four RO water purification systems, built two rest rooms with high-quality and modern materials, and renovated four rest rooms in the environment-friendly model. These activities were finished during the summer of 2015 so that teachers and pupils at piloted schools are provided with certified clean drinking water prior to the beginning of the 2015 – 2016 school year.

Local authorities encouraged the project to expand its scale. “Clean water is an issue that has not been completely solved in our locality. I believe that Mizuiku has substantially improved pupils’ and teachers’ awareness, resulting in their environment-protecting actions. The project has well performed its sustainable goal – improving pupils’ water awareness and short-term goal – ensuring clean drinking water for pupils. I hope that the project will be deployed on a large scale because it will generate long-term benefits to future generations,” said Pham Trung Anh, deputy manager of the Thanh Oai Department of Education and Training.

“We are happy about the encouraging outcomes of “Mizuiku – I love clean water” in 2015. These fruitful piloting outcomes serve as a premise for us to expand the project’s scale. We planned to expand Mizuiku to primary schools in the south of Vietnam in 2016, which is not only beneficial to local communities but also a manifestation of our corporate responsibility as an enterprise heavily relying on natural water resources,” said Takenobu Shiina, senior general manager, planning department, corporate communication division of Suntory Holdings Limited.

Mizuiku is a water education programme that has been successfully deployed in Japan since 2004 by Suntory Group with the participation of over 100,000 pupils and parents in Japan. Vietnam is the first country other than Japan having this project developed. The project is funded by Suntory Holdings Limited (SHD) Japan and deployed by Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam Beverage (SPVB) in coordination with local authorities, piloted schools and the Live and Learn environmental education organisation.

100 per cent foreign-owned Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam Beverage is a strategic beverage alliance between Suntory and PepsiCo.

Founded in 1899, Suntory is a multi-national major beverage company with 329 group companies and nearly 38,000 employees across Japan, the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific.