Quang Nam, August 9th - Panasonic implemented its Solar Lantern Donation program for the 4th time in Vietnam to grant 330 solar lanterns in Nam Tra My district, Quang Nam province. The program has originated under Panasonic’s global initiative "Light up the Future" and is also a long-awaited activity for many young Vietnamese fellows from the "Live Green and Wellness with Gen G" campaign last year. This time, 20 young volunteers joined with Panasonic in its CSR, aiming to contribute to local community towards realizing the vision of wellness and sustainable development for Vietnam.

The activity is unique in the sense that although Panasonic has been implementing a variety of its corporate citizenship activities, ranging from education to environment such as Panasonic sustainable school program, Panasonic scholarship program, Tree planting Eco relay program etc… but this is for the first time the Japanese giant organized a donation trip with participation of young people nationwide. The ceremony was held down in the province of Nam Tra My, while other “contributing to local community” took place in even more remote corners of Tra Cang and Tra Vinh communes, which enabled nearly 100 local residents to receive solar lanterns directly on field and 100 local students could enjoy many fun and meaningful activities on the environment topic. In order to do that, Panasonic representatives and young volunteers had to cross over 170 km of moutainous roads from Da Nang to Nam Tra My, after flying over from different parts of the country including Hanoi, HCMC, Hue, Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa...

Mr. Marukawa Yoichi, General Director of Panasonic Vietnam shared: Panasonic has always put the mission of contributing to society in all our business activities. In Vietnam, we have a strong commitment to further contribute to the Wellness of Vietnamese people and sustainable development of Vietnam in the next 50 years. And one of our global initiatives – the project of “Light up the Future” shared the same purpose: we want to contribute to improving the living standard of local people, helping local children to have better conditions for studying, especially during nighttime.

We understand Nam Tra My district of Quang Nam province is a special location with challenges for development due to its geographical conditions, including mountainous terrain, whereas Tra Cang and Tra Vinh are among most disadvantaged communes with rate of poverty households are over 60% and lack of access to national grid that makes it very difficult for local people in daily life. Therefore, with this program, we aimed not only to support improving local living standards, but also follow Vietnam Government’s direction in eliminating poverty, and contribute to realizing Panasonic Green Impact commitment as well as our Wellness vision through renewable energy initiatives. Especially we do believe that by participating in this meaningful program, young enthusiastic Gen Green ambassadors can enjoy the chance to develop themselves and enable their further aspiration to contribute to society.”

Mr. Marukawa Yoichi - General Director of Panasonic Vienam delivered the solar lanters to representatives of local people at the Donation Ceremony

Panasonic Solar Lantern is an initiative of Panasonic Corporation. The product is a LED lantern introduced since 2013 with a built-in rechargeable battery to store solar energy during the day, enabling it to provide light at night and offer a clean and safe solution as a light source as well as a power source for people living in areas without electricity. The portable lantern can be used in homes and various other locations including hospitals, schools, shops and outdoors. By 2023, Panasonic has donated more than 100,000 solar lanterns to off-grid areas in 30 countries in Asia and Africa, in which 2,832 units were contributed to communities of five provinces in Vietnam including Dien Bien, Yen Bai, Thanh Hoa, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces.

Mr. Tran Van Thuong - Chairman of Tra Vinh Commune People's Committee shared: "This activity of Panasonic meant a lot to a mountainous commune like Tra Cang, where people's life are still struggling without access to the national electricity grid. With the donated solar lanterns, it will help to light up the living conditions of ethnic minorities, while bring more opportunities for children to studying.”

Mr. Tran Duy Dung - President of Nam Tra My district People's Committee shared his appreciation at the event of Solar lantern donation

In implementing this program, Panasonic has the accompany of Frogsleap Foundation, an NGO who has rich experience in engaging young volunteers as well as delivering solar power projects in remote areas.

Participating in the ceremony, Ms. Ton Nu Thuc Quyen, who is leading a project named Eco Station, project aims to raise awareness of ecological protection in Son Tra Peninsula, shared: “Panasonic's activities for Gen G over the years have created a memorable journey and the solar lantern donation program this time is an opportunity for us to directly contribute to remote communities, and spread the message of environmental protection to the community.”

Gen G volunteers joined in Eco-learning classes for local students and guided how to use the solar lanterns with local residents.

The solar lantern donation project 2023 is one of the latest efforts of Panasonic Vietnam in the journey of realizing the 50 year’s Wellness vision and Panasonic Green Impact declaration. Earlier this year, the company has completed tree planting program in Thanh Hoa with participation of nearly 100 Panasonic’s employees; after a grand project of tree planting in 13 provinces across Vietnam with active participation from its customers and business partner named “Live Wellness, Contribute Green”, adding up to a total record-high forest tree number planted in less than one year of over 360,000 trees.

Local people used the solar lantern for daily work

Local children used the solar lantern to study at night time

"Live Green and Wellness with Gen G" is a community campaign initiated by Panasonic Vietnam in early 2023, in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and NGOs aim at inspiring and motivating the active participation of young Vietnamese people in pioneering a green, healthy and environmentally friendly lifestyle. The campaign is one of activities to realizing “Panasonic GREEN IMPACT”, the global commitment on global warming prevention, with the declared goal of neutralizing CO₂ emissions in all member companies of the company, and reducing CO₂ emissions by 300 million tons throughout the value chain by 2050, equivalent to 1% of global CO₂ emissions today, while contributing to the Net Zero direction by 2050 of the Government of Vietnam.

The campaign has brought a series of interesting and diverse activities both online and offline, and attracted the participation of many young people across the country while inspire them becoming a part of "Gen G" – a new concept of Pioneer Generation in green lifestyle.