30 Nissan D22 4x4 Pick-Up Trucks Arrive in Haiti

YOKOHAMA, Japan, May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. announced today that 30 Nissan D22 4x4 pick-up trucks arrived in Haiti and were received by the United Nations' World Food Programme.  The trucks will be put to work immediately to deliver food, supplies and aid in the massive ongoing efforts to help rebuild lives in a nation ravaged by a devastating earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010.

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The donation of trucks, in response to a request from former U.S. President Bill Clinton, founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation and currently UN Special Envoy for Haiti, is an expansion of relief efforts in Haiti sponsored by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and its global community of employees.

"I'm pleased Nissan has answered our call for trucks to aid our recovery efforts in Haiti," said President Clinton.  "This generous donation will be critical in ongoing efforts to mobilize food and other needed supplies, and I'm thankful for Nissan's leadership in demonstrating how the private sector can help the people of Haiti 'build back better.'"

With the donation of the pick-up trucks, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and its employees worldwide have contributed cash and products valued at nearly $750,000 to relief efforts in Haiti.

Immediately after the earthquake in January, Nissan employees took action to help – first with a donation of more than $100,000 cash, corporate matches for gifts from employees, and a commitment to partner with Habitat for Humanity International to construct new homes.  In response to the request for trucks, Nissan's Corporate Social Responsibility team worked with the U.N. to identify a partner relief organization and found a match in the World Food Programme, which took delivery of the trucks today in Port-au-Prince.

"When the Clinton Foundation contacted us about trucks for Haiti, there was no question that we would help," said Carlos Ghosn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.  "Everyone at Nissan was eager to take action, and I know that our employees at Cuernavaca, Mexico, are especially proud that the trucks they have built in the Americas region are directly involved in helping the people of Haiti to rebuild their lives and their country."

"This is such a generous gift to the people of Haiti.  Nissan and its people have demonstrated how companies and employees can step up to the plate and deliver.  These Nissan trucks will help us and our partners to bring life-saving food and relief supplies to thousands of survivors in areas of Haiti that are hard to reach," said Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP).  "WFP in its lead role in logistics needed new trucks and this partnership with the Clinton Foundation and Nissan comes at exactly the right time. The whole humanitarian community is grateful for this support."

The 30 pick-up trucks shipped to Haiti were built by the employees of Nissan Mexicana at the company's manufacturing center in Cuernavaca.  Each truck is marked with a special message of hope from the employees, "Nissan: Dans les rues d'Haiti pour vous aider!"  Translated from the Haitian French dialect, the message reads, "Nissan: On the roads of Haiti to help you!"

The Nissan D22 was identified as best suited for the relief efforts and conditions in Haiti.  It has a reputation for being a "workhorse" that has been used to deliver relief to people all over the world.  With that reputation, the choice of truck was clear – all that remained was logistics and reception by the World Food Programme.

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. is a signatory of the UN Global Compact, through which corporations commit that they will deploy financial and human resources to aid the relief of human suffering caused by natural disasters.  Nissan has a long-standing commitment to ensuring that its resources make life better for people.

ABOUT NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. is a global automotive company with vehicle sales of 3.36 million in 2009. Nissan is present in all major auto markets worldwide, selling a comprehensive range of cars, pick-up trucks, SUVs and light commercial vehicles under the Nissan and Infiniti brands.  More information about Nissan and its products can be found at www.nissan-global.com.

ABOUT THE CLINTON FOUNDATION

The William J. Clinton Foundation focuses on worldwide issues that demand urgent action, solutions, and measurable results -- global climate change, HIV/AIDS in the developing world, childhood obesity and economic opportunity in the United States, and economic development in Africa and Latin America. The Clinton Foundation Haiti Fund, created after the January earthquake, has raised over $14 million from more than 100,000 individuals for relief, recovery, and reconstruction assistance. In the month after the disaster, the Fund has allocated $3 million to a dozen 501(c)(3) organizations on the ground in Haiti, and has also supported the shipment and delivery of life-saving supplies donated from businesses and other organizations.

ABOUT THE UN WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. In 2010, WFP aims to feed more than 90 million people in 74 countries. Since the earthquake WFP has reached 3.5 million people in Haiti with food rations, and plays a lead role in the Logistics and Telecommunications Cluster. WFP now provides RSS feeds to help journalists keep up with the latest press releases, videos and photos as they are published on WFP.org. For more details see: http://www.wfp.org/rss.

SOURCE Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.