Taiyo Corporation (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Mariko Nakabe) accepted Norton Ep Rambeau Nirina Rafarahanta (hereinafter referred to as “Norton”), a JICA exchange student from Madagascar who is a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of Advanced Preventive Medical Sciences at Kanazawa University, for two weeks from August 19th to 30th, and conducted an internship as part of the SDGs Global Leadership Program.

One of the goals of internships for international students is to gain experience working at a Japanese company, and Norton accompanied our staff to the hospital tour, observing intently. This allowed her to fully understand how our wearable surgical light, OPELAIII Cx, is utilized on site, and how it is benefitting in this field. Moreover, she had the opportunity to hear about its benefits from the doctor himself.

For us, the internship was to confirm whether there was a demand for our products in the students’ home countries, and to explore how to effectively propose them to government agencies, hospitals, import agents, etc. Norton investigated the current state of medical care in Madagascar and found that the battery-powered OPELAIII was in high demand for treating patients in situations where the power supply was unstable. She also found that she could introduce it through her own network, through a revered doctor who had served as the former Minister of Health in Madagascar. First, we decided to approach them by writing a proposal, and we were able to prepare the first draft during the internship. We promised to continue to collaborate with Norton, with the goal of regularly interacting with her in the future and officially submitting a proposal to the Ministry of Health of Madagascar.

Although this internship was the first attempt by our company, with the cooperation and guidance of the Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE), it was a fulfilling experience that led to great results for both the student and the company in such a short period of time. If there is an opportunity next year, we will positively consider participating in the JICA internship program again.

A report session on the final day of the internship (Norton, bottom left).