Social worker helps single mothers and their babies

Nurses and baby sitters cradle crying babies at a clinic inside the Eastern Social Welfare Society, an adoption agency in Mapo, Seoul. They check each baby’s health before starting a journey to find a new family.At the end of each baby’s bed, a small tag shows their name, birth date and destination.Oh Ji-young, 40, who has been serving at the ESWS since 1995, is now helping single mothers stand on their own.Her dedication to single mothers, adopted babies and adoptive families earned her an awar

Oct. 17, 2012

Celebrity Lee Yoon-mi participates in bazaar

Actress Lee Yoon-mi participated in a charity bazaar on Thursday to help raise money for medical treatment of children awaiting adoption. The “Deep Autumn Big Love” charity fundraiser, held in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul, was organized by the Social Welfare Society, an adoption organization specializing in helping single mothers and their children’s adoptions.The 31-year-old actress first came to public by receiving the best talent award from Super Elite Model Competition in 1998 and debuted in 2003 as

Oct. 10, 2012

KAIST staff made Korea’s first certified fundraiser

A senior officer at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has been awarded a certificate from an international association for fund-raising professionals, according to the school in Daejeon.Kim Hyun-soo, 37, Senior Major Gift Officer of the KAIST Development Foundation was named earlier this month as Certified Fund Raising Executive by CFRE International, KAIST said.CFRE International is an independent organization dedicated to the certification of fund-raising executives by set

Oct. 10, 2012

Volunteer worker helps lonely elderly people in shanty town

Many elderly in ‘jjokbang’ left to die aloneAfter 15 years of volunteering, Hong In-sik is still passionate about helping elderly people living in jjokbang, or tiny rooms that can barely accommodate one person. Since last year Hong has been the president of a senior volunteer group organized by the Yeongdeungpo District Office in Seoul.The group of 195 people in their 50s or 60s helps each person in the rundown jjokbang town in Munrae-dong in the district. In summer the rooms with no proper vent

Oct. 3, 2012

KTO invites Japanese tourists with disabilities

The Korea Tourism Organization has invited Japanese tourists with disabilities to Korea in its effort to offer more travel opportunities to underprivileged people. A group of 30 Japanese tourists from Fukuoka accompanied by their caretakers started their tour on Tuesday in Seoul, and are expected to visit major tourist attractions in the city including Myeong-dong, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Namsan Hanok Village and Han River through Friday. “We will make tourism barrier-free for people with disabili

Sept. 26, 2012

Group home helps mentally disabled live on their own

‘Everyone is born with the ability to survive’Mentally disabled people should be given opportunities to learn how to live independently and assimilate into society though it would pose a tough challenge, said Kim Soo-jin, director of the Seoul Group Home Support Center.“Society sometimes frets about letting mentally disabled people live alone. But everyone is born with the ability to survive and solve their own problems,” said Kim, 42, who has been working for 20 years on a program to encourage

Sept. 26, 2012

Croatian pianist lends helping hands

Maksim Mrvica, a Croatian pianist whose musical passion was sparked after catching a glimpse of a piano at his best friend’s house when he was eight years old, inspired Korean children with disabilities with music lessons. The renowned classical-pop crossover pianist participated in mentoring classes with disabled children at Pony Chung Hall in southern Seoul on Tuesday.“All children should be surrounded in an environment full of love and support,” said Mrvica in a statement released by his agen

Sept. 19, 2012

Pottery classes help disabled youth

Former hagwon boss helps mentally disabled open up through sculpture classesIn a small classroom, students start rolling and kneading clay after listening to the teacher’s instructions. Showered with praise and encouragement from their teacher, they become engrossed in shaping stems and petals to make flowers. Kim Jeong-min, 53, received a local welfare award from Seoul City for running a pottery class at Down Center for mentally disabled youth, which helps them gain psychological and emotional

Sept. 19, 2012

KOICA builds hospital in northeast Paraguay

The Korea International Cooperation Agency has constructed a general hospital in a poor district in Paraguay as part of its overseas assistance program. The state-run international aid agency held the opening ceremony on Monday for the hospital in San Pedro, the nation’s most underdeveloped city, 320 km northeast of the capital Asuncion. The KOICA said it has put $5.5 million into the three-year construction. The hospital will provide service to residents of San Pedro as well as nearby Concepcin

Sept. 12, 2012

A life devoted to helping the disabled

For the disabled, every day is a fight, welfare center counselor says A winding hillside road lined with tall trees and shrubs on the lower slopes of Achasan, eastern Seoul, leads up to a set of buildings bustling with people in wheelchairs and on crutches, chatting in high spirits. On the first floor of the main building of Jeongnip Public Welfare Institution, Korea’s first rehabilitation center, is a 20-something-square-meter office where a small woman with a bright smile has been guiding visi

Sept. 12, 2012

Elderly vendor donates W10b to Yonsei University

An 89-year-old vendor has donated her 10 billion won ($8.8 million) fortune she had saved for 60 years to Yonsei University to help poor students. Kim Soon-jeon visited the university on Aug. 14 and said she hoped to set up a scholarship program in her name with her assets, including her house and buildings.“I hope the money can help students who cannot pursue their academic careers due to financial difficulties,” Kim said.  Kim herself has been maintaining a frugal life. When the Korean War had

Sept. 5, 2012

Wheelchair maker gives hope to disabled

Geum develops business from simple repair shop to builder of specialized sports modelsHalf the workers at wheelchair maker Wheel Line are disabled themselves, including chief executive Geum Dong-ok. The reason: “Those who need them the most will make wheelchairs with passion and consideration,” he says. Geum, 39, was a healthy, responsible young man before an incident 20 years ago, when he spotted a girl he knew getting harassed by pimps. When he tried to rescue her, they stabbed him in his back

Sept. 5, 2012

Art helps children dream big

More than 1,000 children had a rare chance to create special art pieces with famous media artist Lee Lee-nam last week as part of an art education program sponsored by South Korean conglomerate Hanwha and the Korean Business Council for the Arts. The children’s drawings and sculptures will be part of a single media installation piece by Lee that will be shown at the 2012 World Conservation Congress at the International Convention Center in Jeju from Sept. 6-15. Lee is serving as the goodwill amb

Aug. 29, 2012

Doctor for the neglected

Koh Young-cho, a neurosurgeon at Konkuk University Medical Center, has been treating neglected people for 35 years. At the age of 59, Koh is still passionate about seeing patients from three nonprofit clinics in Seoul for the destitute, the homeless and immigrants “The joy of helping others is so exhilarating that you even feel rejuvenated,” he told The Korea Herald. Growing up in a devout Catholic family, he had wanted to become a cleric and attended a clergy school for five years.  In his fina

Aug. 22, 2012

ECC teaches Mongolian kids

ULAN BATOR ― On a vast expanse of grassy meadows in the suburbs, some 25 kilometers east of the Mongolian capital, a group of local teenagers shout and laugh while playing basketball and volleyball at a campsite.As one adult tells them it is time for their next class, they wrap up their games and rush to a one-story building on top of a hill overlooking the river, the mountains and a couple of Mongolian traditional nomadic dwellings, or yurts.The East-West Cultural Development Cooperation Counci

Aug. 15, 2012

Olympian’s parents to receive better housing

A Korean construction company announced on Monday that it would donate a new apartment to gymnastics gold medalist Yang Hak-seon and his family, after reports of their makeshift plastic greenhouse home stormed the media.Shortly after Yang won Korea’s first gymnastics gold, SM Group announced that it would provide his parents with an apartment in Gwangju that is to be completed next year. Yang’s parents, Yang Kwan-kwon and Ki Sook-hyang, have been living in a 150-square-meter plastic greenhouse i

Aug. 8, 2012

Mecenat Council, K-Auction support junior artists

The Korean Business Council for the Arts has kicked off a four-day art camp for underprivileged, artistically gifted children starting Tuesday in collaboration with K-Auction, the country’s leading fine arts auction house.“The K-Auction Junior Artist Summer Art Camp is designed to offer talented children a chance to achieve their dreams under the guidance of established artists. The camp consists of various programs to help them expand their perspectives and challenge conventional ideas,” the co

Aug. 8, 2012

Store 36.5 links goods to worthy causes

At Store 36.5, the nation’s first store dedicated to social enterprises, every item has a good reason to be purchased.A bottle of bean paste supports descendents of ethnic Koreans who were forcibly re-located to central Asia from Russia’s Far East under the rule of Joseph Stalin in the 1930s and are now struggling to settle back in the Far East. A jar of plum extract, produced by workers with Down syndrome, helps create more jobs for the mentally disabled. “Store 36.5 is the first effort to brin

Aug. 1, 2012