TMC Donates Vehicles to Anti-Poverty NPO in Africa
Toyota City, Japan, May 28, 2013 /3BL Media/—Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) will donate "Land Cruiser" SUVs to the non-profit organization Millennium Promise (MP) for use at Millennium Village sites* in impoverished regions of Africa.
MP, a non-profit organization founded in 2005 in New York, was established by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and philanthropist Raymond G. Chambers. The United Nations has indicated that poverty can cause regional destabilization, and in 2000 it adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration with a target of halving the percentage of people whose income is less than one dollar a day by 2015. To achieve the target, MP has established Millennium Village sites serving approximately 80 villages in 10 African countries and carries out comprehensive support projects that include agriculture, education, and infrastructure development.
In advance of the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development to be held early next month, TMC decided to donate the vehicles following discussions with the Japan chapter of the Millennium Promise. TMC will donate one Land Cruiser to each Millennium Village in Tanzania and Mali. The vehicles will be used for emergency transportation of pregnant women and other patients to hospitals, as well as to transport staff, agricultural seed, fertilizer and crops.
About the donation, Managing Officer Koki Konishi, who is responsible for social contribution at TMC, said: "Toyota will continue economic and social contribution activities aimed at achieving sustainable growth in Africa. The eradication of poverty is an issue that must be addressed by the entire world."
Toyota has long contributed to economic development in Africa, beginning local vehicle production in South Africa in 1962, followed later by Kenya and Egypt. Today, Toyota directly employs approximately 7,000 people in South Africa and supports various CSR initiatives such as providing food to children throughout Africa.
*Developed in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program and the Columbia University Earth Institute, the Millennium Village Project provides villages in Africa (designated as "Millennium Villages") comprehensive support in a variety of areas including agriculture, education, healthcare, sanitation, infrastructure (electric power, transport, communications), gender equality and business development.
