On December 21st, 2018, in Ben Tre province, Suntory Holdings Ltd. Group (Japan), Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam Beverage (Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam) in collaboration with the Ho Chi Minh Young Pioneer Organization, the Vietnam National Student Union organized the Closing Ceremony of “Mizuiku – I love clean water” program in 2018. The event had the participation of Mr. Phan Van Mai – Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of Ben Tre province; Mr. Bui Quang Huy, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union Central Committee, President of Vietnam National Union of Students; Mr. Shiina Takenobu - Senior General Manager, Sustainability Strategy Department, Suntory Holdings Ltd.; leadership representatives from Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam – representatives from the Ministry of Education and Training, leadership representatives from Government bodies and authorities, representatives from the Ho Chi Minh Young Pioneer Organization, representatives from the Vietnam National Union of Students from participating provinces, the representatives from Live & Learn Center, Tuong Lai Center, students and teachers from Bao Thuan primary school, Ba Tri Commune, Ben Tre province.

The representatives of the organizing committee and the winners of the painting contest 

The Education Program for Nature and Water – Mizuiku – is an initiative of Suntory Holdings Limited (Suntory) which was established and implemented in Japan since 2004. In 2015, the program was successfully piloted in the Northern region of Vietnam and then other provinces by Suntory Holdings, Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam in collaboration with the local partners. The original format in Japan was customized and adjusted to create an interesting program suitable for the reality in Vietnam. Since 2017, the Ho Chi Minh Young Pioneer Organization, the Vietnam National Union of Students in collaboration with Suntory Group and Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam implemented the program at the nationwide scale.

A glimpse of the ceremony 

Other than traditional activities like classes on clean water protection for students, training teachers and volunteers, plant tours for over 4,200 students, teachers and volunteers nationwide, installing 15 water filtrations for immediate drinking, etc. in 2018, the program has organized visits to the wood in province for pupils from 2 local elementary schools. The program has also introduced the E-learning platform where teachers and people caring about environment protection can approach the materials summarized from the program operation in Japan and Vietnam. Besides, the program is also positively participated by Ministry of Education and Training on material evaluation in order to popularize the materials amongst elementary school program nationwide. The painting competition for elementary students has also received great participation from the students with over 500,000 entries from 63 provinces. The program in Vietnam has been highly  appreciated and was introduced as a good example for Suntory member businesses to learn and implement in other countries. Heading towards 2019, “Mizuiku – I love clean water” program will still be one of the cooperated activities between Ministry of Education and Training and Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union. Tentatively the program will be implemented and maintained in Lang Son, Bac Ninh, Ha Noi, Quang Nam, Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai and Ben Tre provinces. The highlights of the program in 2019 include building and completing the E-learning platform for students, completing the Mizuiku  education book on water protection in Vietnamese, working closely with the Ministry of Education and Training to introduce the Mizuiku materials as reference books for after-class activities at primary schools and organize activities on waste classification and environment protection for the pupils.

The program “Mizuiku – I love clean water” is expected to receive attention from authorities, media, and media members so that information about this meaningful program will be further circulated in the society.