DHL Japan has supported the non-governmental organization Plan Japan by transporting more than15,000 gifts to children in 40 developing countries as part of Plan’s gift campaign that ran from
October 15 to November 5 in Japan.Headquartered in the UK, the international non-profit organisation Plan supports communitydevelopment with children in 49 developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America benefitingfrom its programmes. In this development project, people providing sustained support are referredto as ‘sponsors’, and they can interact with the children they support through exchanging lettersand gifts. Today there are about 53,000 sponsors in Japan and 1,070,000 around the world.
This year, DHL Express Japan supported the transportation of 106 DHL Jumbo boxes weighing upto 25kg that contained over 15,000 gifts to children from their sponsors. With its Japanheadquarters located in Tokyo, Plan Japan usually sets a weight limit of 50 grams per person onpackages sent to children by the sponsors, but this time it was raised to 150 grams per personduring the campaign period. As a result, about 14,000 sponsors nationwide sent heart warming giftssuch as stationery, toys and other gifts that the normal weight limit would have prevented fromsending.
In addition, DHL did not limit its support to just delivering the packages. Six volunteersfrom DHL Express Japan helped to sort the presents by destinations before packaging them andperformed other volunteer work such as re-wrapping the presents.
DHL aims to contribute to building a healthy society by conducting community volunteeractivities throughout the year. These include active involvement in programmes focusing on the “healthy nurturing of children”, in line with DHL’s regional Supporting Future Generations. It aimsto safeguard the well-being and ensure the social development of children across the region,primarily through the effective provision of access to quality education and healthcare.
In Japan, DHL holds an annual event in partnership with the Japan Lifesaving Association, anon-profit organization that DHL has been supporting since 2004, teaching children about safety atthe beach. This year marked the event’s fifth anniversary.
This year, more than 15,000 DHL employees in over 20 countries across the Asia Pacificregion, participated in volunteer activities from 6-10 August as part of “DHL Volunteer Day”,including 1,000 employees from Japan. This new community outreach project was established this yearunder DHL’s Corporate Sustainability Programme as a means for fostering a spirit of volunteerismamong employees.
