GENKIプログラムへの新たな協賛パートナー企業の参加（その2）【2020年7月の活動報告】

GENKIブログラムへの新たな協賛パートナー企業の参加（その2）
【2020年7月の活動報告】

By July, we distributed approximately 1.16 million meals (progress rate: 55.2%) against Euglena cookie distribution target of 2.1 million meals for this term (October 2019 to September 2020).

1. 1. Participation of new sponsoring partner companies (Part 2)

In the previous month's report, we introduced two new sponsoring partner companies of the GENKI program, but from July 2020, we will newly join Techno Eight Co., Ltd.
Techno Eight Co., Ltd. is a beauty manufacturer that supports beauty styles that are friendly to people and the environment. At the start of sponsorship of the GENKI program, Mr. Mori, President and CEO of the company, made the following comments.
"Euglena is the functional beverage" Green Green "(released in 2012), which was developed with the desire to easily replenish nutrition for beauticians with irregular lifestyles. After that, we repeated planning and study to power up the product to be more conscious of the environment and health surrounding modern people, Euglena compounded based on the conventional product and added a new ingredient "Green Standard". We decided to release it in September of this year. We Our efforts for environmental and social issues for a long time, but nowadays, companies' efforts for SDGs are also regarded as important, and we are also a product. When I was wondering if it would be possible to lead to some kind of support through this program, I learned about the existence of the GENKI program. We decided to sponsor this new product in line with the desire to participate in the event. As the GENKI program becomes known to more and more people in the future, it will lead to the branding of "Green Standard" and will be picked up by our customers. We hope that you will have more opportunities to receive it, and that you will improve your health and awareness. As a result, we hope that it will have a positive synergistic effect of supporting as many children in Bangladesh as possible. . "
This brings the total number of sponsoring partner companies to six. We will continue to expand the GENKI program with the support of our partner companies.

Photo-1: Sponsored product "Green Standard"
Photo-2: Techno Eight Co., Ltd. Headquarters Sales Department

2. Introducing schools that are conducting trial online lessons under the influence of the new coronavirus infection

In Bangladesh, as already mentioned, all educational institutions were closed from March 17 as part of measures to counter the spread of the new coronavirus infection. Since then, the Bangladesh government has announced an extension of the closure period, and there is still no concrete prospect of reopening the school. The government began broadcasting educational programs for primary school children on state television in April of the month following the start of school closures. The nationwide penetration rate of television is only 44.4% (2014 Bangladesh Statistics Bureau survey), and the reality is that households in slums where children attending GENKI program target schools do not own television. Long-term school closures threaten the opportunities for vulnerable children to be educated. Under these circumstances, some of the schools covered by the GENKI program are struggling to provide students with regular learning opportunities. In Bangladesh, the penetration rate of mobile phones has reached 93% (2016 JICA Bangladesh Office Survey) even in poor households. This time, we will introduce an example of Long Dunu School, which is engaged in online lessons using this mobile phone.
Long Dunu School is located in the Chadoudan area, a slum in Dhaka. Principal Tahera, who also teaches himself, has decided to start an online lesson on a trial basis. Online classes are rare and very exceptional cases in slum schools. Classes are held daily from 11:00 am to 2:30 pm, except on holidays (Friday). A total of eight teachers conduct online lessons two days a week, operating both computers and mobile phones from home through a network environment such as Facebook. Students borrow their father's or relative's mobile phone from home to access the teacher's lesson network and attend online lessons. Approximately 20 people wish to participate in each class, but since the number of students that can be connected at one time is limited to 5 to 6, the teacher will give a self-study instruction after explaining the learning content to the next 5 to 6 people. It has been devised such as switching the connection and proceeding with the lesson.
However, there are major obstacles to running online classes. The first is the problem of mobile phone terminals. Online lessons are conducted using both video and audio, but slums have a limited number of homes with smartphones, and many homes are cheap and use older models of terminals. For this reason, it is often the case that three or four nearby classmates have to gather at a student's house with a smartphone to attend a class. The second is that the communication environment of mobile phones is vulnerable. It often happens that the network is suddenly disconnected or the audio or video is obscured during online lessons. In that case, the lesson will be continued as much as possible by voice only. Principal Tahera said, "Many students in slums tend to forget what they have learned because of the long school holidays. I want you to have a habit of learning by doing things, and to accumulate what you have learned. " We sincerely hope that the school will be reopened as soon Euglena cookies to schools eligible for the GENKI program as soon as possible.

Photo-3: Mobile phone screens of students participating in online classes (Principal Tahera at the bottom left of the screen)
Photo-4: Timetable for online classes (3rd to 5th grade)
Photo-5: Classroom class before school closure ①
Photo-6: Classroom class before school closure ②