Kia Motors Corporation expanded its corporate social responsibility activities this month by launching its Green Light Project, a global social mobility program that will seek to improve the accessibility of health and education for disadvantaged youth in ailing regions.

The project’s official launch ceremony took place earlier this month at the future site of the Maendeleo Secondary School situated in the Madale area of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (East Africa). The event was attended by Kia Motors Corporation’s Director of Management Strategy, Mr. Gui-Hyun Choi. Kia Motors Corporation and SBS, a national TV and radio network in South Korea, funded the construction of the school, which will serve as the Green Light Project’s official base camp.

Good Neighbours has been collaborating with Kia Motors to execute its Green Light Project activities such as the secondary school’s construction and deployment of four donated Kia K2700 trucks, which will be retrofitted for use as school and village transportation as well as mobile libraries and health clinics. Kia plans to give USD13 million of funding for the project in the 2012 fiscal year.

The Green Light Project adopts Kia Motors’ corporate social responsibility values of mobility and challenge, which were introduced last year as core principles to develop programs that will help lift social, economic, transport and health restrictions in poverty-stricken areas and give new hope to disadvantaged individuals.

“A green light is the universal transit symbol to move forward, and as an automotive company, our Green Light Project will provide mobility to individuals in both a literal and figurative sense. Our Kia K2700 trucks will offer safe transportation to local residents who are isolated from healthcare and education services, and the Maendeleo Secondary School and its neighbouring Green Light Program Center will empower individuals to challenge and move past restrictions that are keeping them from living a more fulfilling life,” said Thomas Oh, executive vice president and COO of Kia Motors Corporation.