As a corporate citizen in a community, Sony runs sustainable programs for the next generation around the world.
The Wellspring of Science Inspirations is an activity targeted for children. It is under the direction of principal teacher Dr. Hideki Shirakawa, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Children from grades 5 to 8 stay several nights with teachers and experience first-hand social manners and joys of learning through feeling the wonders of nature and science. With “learning from nature” as the main concept, the children work in groups on topics of their choice while enjoying, investigating, researching, and discussing nature. They also conduct experiments on electricity-conductive plastics, and experience astronomical observations at night as well. The children learn the importance of working as a team through group activities with other children of different ages.
Sony Foundation for Education
"The enjoyable science experiment class" was held for the elementary school students in Hamamatsu region with an original handmade CD player kit and FM radio kit. It has been continuously held since year 2000, aiming to give opportunity for children to actually make up one thing by their hand, and to improve the interest to the science and creativity, while Japanese students are tends to lose interest in science. About 64 students from local schools participated to this class in 2007.
Digital Dream, where you can experience Sony's latest digital technology, and Science Wonder, where you can experience scientific principles. Be surprised and moved by what you experience in these two conceptually diffent worlds. These attractions offer both children and adults opportunities for completely new experiences. That's the essence of Sony ExploraScience-an amazing, fun science museum.
Sony ExploraScience (Tokyo)
Taking its commitment towards the enhancement of scientific literacy forward, Sony India has organized the Sony Science Show in Delhi from November 19 – 21, 2007. Aimed at fourth graders (nine years), the Science Show had an audience of over 7000 students from 28 participating schools. Through simple scientific experiments using basic everyday props such as balloons, paper, strings and cardboard boxes, students experienced the joy of science.
2009 marks the twelfth year since the establishment of the Sony Creative Science Award, a competition which runs annually and was started in Singapore in 1998. Co-organized by Sony Group companies in Singapore and the Singapore Science Centre, this key CSR program involves school children aged between 7 to 12 years creating toys that demonstrate scientific principles. Besides the main competition, the children are also invited to attend science shows, as well as creativity and technical workshops. In 2008, the competition received more than 3,000 entries from 108 schools, bringing the total number of participants over the past decade to around 33,000 children.
Sony Creative Science Award
The Sony Wonder Technology Lab (SWTL), located in New York City, is an interactive technology and entertainment museum open free to the public. SWTL inspires creativity in a high-quality, engaging, and family-friendly learning environment. Following extensive collaboration among Sony's electronics and entertainment businesses, SWTL unveiled 14 new exhibits to the public in the Fall of 2008 that focus primarily on signals processing and transmission, nanotechnology, robotics, virtual surgery, the evolution of devices, animation and HDTV production. SWTL attracts more than 200,000 visitors per year and has welcomed over 2.8 million guests since it first opened in 1994.
Sony Wonder Technology Lab
Sony Nature Photography contest is open to Malaysian students aged 13 to 19 encouraging them to submit as many creative nature photographs.This year, over 100 secondary students and teachers from all states, volunteers from Malaysian Nature Society and Sony staff joined the 4 days 3 nights camp at Langkawi Island to learn about nature and photography. The photography project comes with a theme entitled "Living with Nature", simply means creating nature awareness through photography, capturing the beauty and treasures of Malaysia's flora and fauna.
Nature Photography Contest
Sony held the Young Creative workshop, in which children gained first-hand experience in making a television program. The objective of the workshop was to stimulate the children’s curiosity in science and technology and to nurture their talent and creativity. More than 80 participants, aged between 12 and 16, took on the roles of announcer, producer, casting director, editor and cameraman using Handycams and other Sony equipment. Through this experience, which included a tour of a manufacturing site, children learned all about the connection between technology, communications and storytelling.
Aiming to further commit to local community, Sony Taiwan conducted series program called Digital Film Program, and invited schools from remote areas to join. These series program not only created a platform for the kids to explore their various potentials, but also inspired those kids to review, and rediscover their hometown. Sony Taiwan provides products, funds, volunteering resources, and care to the remote areas, and there are 70 elementary schools being supported since 2006.
Digital Film Program
This project, which encourages children to take photos from their own unique perspective, is directed at children in the two African countries of Liberia and Rwanda, where people face such problems as poverty and disease. The aim is to encourage the children to participate in society by sharing their thoughts with friends and others to cultivate a better understanding of the problems facing the society in which they live through photography. Sony's support covers not only the provision of digital cameras and other equipment used in the project, but also funds to run the project. Photographs from the project were exhibited in Tokyo and other cities around the country.
UNICEF EYE SEE III
Sony is Founder Member of the Escuela de Música Reina Sofía and is patron of Chamber Orchestra. Sony supports young today's promises, tomorrow's masters, through the organisation of concerts all around Spain. The students (from teenagers to early twenties) are selected among candidates of different countries of Europe, Asia and South America. This initiative is in order to make them increase their experience of playing in front of the audience. Sony does believe in long term projects, we think that's the only and best way to increase our culture's global level among the society.
Sony Music Foundation presents vairous classical concerts, including that can be attended together with children of pre-school age, to nurture rich mind through classical music.
The "Concert for KIDS"series 'from 0 year old', and 'from 3 years old', are held nationwide, and offer music mixed with happy talks and rhythmical tunes, which parents can also enjoy. For convenience, facilities such as diaper changing room and nursing room are made available on the spot.
Sony Group has been supporting South Africa Mobile Library Project, which was launched by a local NGO SAPESI and the South Africa Department of Education to improve primary education.
The project is designated to lend out books or textbooks to children by visiting schools at remote locations with second-hand mobile library vehicles. Sony Corporation made a financial contribution and it was used to purchase books of local languages. Employees of six Sony Group companies, Sony South Africa, Sony Australia, Sony Singapore, Sony Hong Kong, Sony UK and Sony New Zealand, donated children’s books.
Sony (China) has donated desks, chairs and blackboards for five consecutive years to the underdeveloped, rural areas of central and westen China in an effort to improve the environment for children to study.
In 2007, under the theme of "caring for children whose parents work away from home", Sony (China) provided support for 32 schools in 8 provinces which many such children attend. Besides the donations, hoping to stimulate an interest in science, Sony (China) conducted special experimental classes with the cooperation of Sony ExploraScience Museum (Beijing).
In fiscal 2007, Sony (China) volunteers also visited such schools, bringing books, school supplies and sports equipment, and thus providing volunteers with an opportunity to interact with the local children.
In order to support social participation by visually impaired people, "Eyemate fund-raising" has been executed by the emproyees every year since 1997. The same amount of donation as a matching gift is applied by Sony Life Insurance to the fund by the employees during the year, and 11 million yen in total was able to be donated to THE EYE MATE, Inc. in 2007. The total of a current contribution becomes 121 million yen, and this amount of money becomes a maximum level as an organization.
Sony of Canada is a major contributor to Make-A-Wish Canada, an organization that fulfills the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses. Our consumer electronics products are used to fulfill these wishes. Sony of Canada grants all the wishes with consumer electronic products ranging from cameras to tv's. Sony staff are encouraged to volunteer and do so by going to the wish child's home to deliver, set up and demonstrate the product. In 2007, we fulfilled over 50 wishes.
Sony Austria held the creative environmental-contest "Sony & Kids for a beautiful planet 2008", in which kids challenged to build a model of a Sony camera only using recycled materials. Out of 75 participants, the 46 pupils in the winning classes were invited to the WWF-workshop location “Seewinklhof” in Apetlon (Burgenland). They experienced the “diversity of our ecosystem”, together with teachers and WWF intsructors and Sony volunteers.
On June 18, 2008, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) celebrated Sony Global Volunteer Day by working with the Friends of the Ballona Wetlands on a special wetlands restoration project. The Ballona Wetlands represent some of the last undeveloped areas in Los Angeles and restoration efforts have created significant improvements in habitat diversity and restored the area to its native state. 150 SPE employees assisted the Friends of the Ballona Wetlands with this endeavor by clearing invasive grasses and non-native plants, restoring a trail through the dunes and revitalizing benches in the educational amphitheater.
As the first step for Sony to provide a long term support in Sichuan after the earthquake, Biyu Chunnlei Earthquake-proof School in Jiangyou City, Sichuan Province was built by the China Children and Young People Fund, which is a subsystem of All China Womenfs Federation, with the donated fund of approx. RMB 80,000 from Sony China. Equipment such as black boards and desks were also prepared with the donated fund. The entrance ceremony was held on September, 2008, and messages from Sony employees' children in Japan were presented to students of the school to encourage them.
For over one million of victimes by the flood in Tabasco state on October, 2007, Sony Electronics de Mexico collected foods and drinks, daily essentials from the employees, to rescue the damaged community. About 190 volunteers participated in this activity.
For The Next Generation
