Korea completes $4.7m ODA project for El Salvador

South Korea has completed an official development assistance project worth $4.7 million for El Salvador, which will benefit hundreds of farmers and their families in the northern part of the Central American country, the South Korean ODA agency said Thursday.Under the farmer-empowerment project which started in 2013, the Korea International Cooperation Agency built irrigation and solar energy generation systems as well as a community center for farmers in El Porvenir, Santa Ana, according to the

July 27, 2017

Parliament committee passes bill to ban state-authored history textbook

The parliament's education committee on Friday passed a bill to ban state-authored textbooks amid the boycott from conservative parties.  The National Assembly Education, Culture, Sports & Tourism Committee approved the bill that bans the use of textbooks whose copyrights are held by the government. The bill has been handed over to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. The bill targets the Park Geun-hye government's plan to provide middle and high school students with state-authored history t

Jan. 20, 2017

Lend your voice to an audio book for the blind

Korea Asset Management Corp. is recruiting 30 citizen volunteers for its third annual audio book production for the visually impaired, between June 1 and 15 via portal site Naver’s charity platform Happy Bean. SBS TV station’s weathercaster Shin So-yeon and the wife of professional baseball player Lotte Giants’ Kang Min-ho, have endorsed the campaign and volunteered, drawing attention to the project. (KAMCO)In the previous two years, KAMCO had called on its employees to volunteer for the audio b

June 2, 2016

Green enthusiasts welcomed to adopt handcraft pandas

WWF Korea offers Korean supporters of art and nature an opportunity to adopt 14 special edition pandas of the “1600 Pandas+ World Tour,” created in collaboration with French handcrafted papier-mâché artist Paulo Grangeon, Korean calligrapher Kang Byung-in, and installation artist Rho Dongsik. (AMHERST)WWF Korea has invited art lovers here to “adopt” 14 adorable pandas from the world-famous “1600 Pandas+ World Tour,” an auction event to honor Korean cultural heritage and support sustainability th

July 22, 2015

[Photo News] Eat cake together

April 4, 2014

[Photo News] Messages of hope

March 11, 2014

[Photo News] Siemens volunteers

Jan. 26, 2014

More than just a drop of blood

One pint of blood can save up to three lives. With this in mind, Noh Sang-eun, a 27-year-old office worker in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, has saved hundreds of lives by donating blood once every two or three weeks for more than 10 years. Noh has made it onto the Red Cross list of those who have donated blood more than 100 times. In Korea, some 6,600 donors have done so, with Noh donating blood 114 times since 2002. “I was proud of myself at first but realized soon that there were about

Jan. 13, 2014

Local firms fine-tune their social contributions

Korean companies’ contributions to local communities are being diversified into unprecedented forms of philanthropy in step with a fast-paced change in technology.The spectrum of philanthropic activities has widened from the simple and time-honored act of giving money or goods toward novel projects such as donating a power supply, funding social enterprises, and developing innovative electronic gadgets for the disabled.Recipients are also more specified. Companies’ pro bono programs have been fi

Dec. 20, 2013

Foreign firms steadfast on core values of social contributions

Foreign companies in Korea remain steadfast on their core values of corporate social responsibility despite occasional criticism over a tendency to shy away from monetary donations.Of the $179 million of corporate donations in 2012 to the Community Chest of Korea, the nation’s largest fundraising organization, $177.4 million came from domestic companies while only about $1.6 million, or 0.9 percent, was given by foreign multinational corporations, according to a report by the Community Chest.Thi

Dec. 20, 2013

Free after-school classes light up hope for N.K. kids

A dozen kids rush into an old building in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, after school. They are cheerful, as if they are about to play, but only a stack of books and a few teachers await them. The elementary school and middle school kids come to the Kuensaem School to study with volunteer tutors from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. every day. The students share one thing in common: They are all from North Korea.The Kuensaem School is a free after-school program created and supported by volunteers to assist children from N

Dec. 17, 2013

[Photo News] Marriott donates

Dec. 13, 2013

[Photo News] Travel agents donate to Philippines

Dec. 11, 2013

Devoted nun, dentist wins Lee Tae-seok award

Park Jeong-sook, a nun and dentist who devoted her life to caring for the needy in Bangladesh, received the Foreign Ministry’s Lee Tae-seok Award last week. The award was launched in 2011 and named after a Catholic priest who died a year earlier at age 48 while helping displaced people in South Sudan. Park, 49, has been setting up schools, homes and other facilities for the poor and children with disabilities in Dhaka since 2005. In 2007 she opened a hospital to provide free dental care services

Dec. 3, 2013

Big dreams of disabled hotelier

Arranging linen and folding towels may be simple and monotonous tasks for many hoteliers. But for Lee Sang-hyuk, 23, the work is a precious source of confidence and hope for the future. Lee, a new employee of the Plaza Hotel in the heart of Seoul, is the first regular hotelier with a disability in the country. He has a mild, third-degree intellectual disability, a level in which social and occupational rehabilitation is possible through education and training. After three months of training, Lee

Dec. 3, 2013

[Photo News] Kimchi sharing

Dec. 2, 2013

[Photo News] Samsung donation

Nov. 21, 2013

[Photo News] Kimchi charity

Nov. 19, 2013