In 2012 Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment on charges of recruiting child soldiers under the age of 15 years to fight in his rebel army. The historical judgment was handed down by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The international court is presided over by second-term president Song Sang-hyun, who is also at the helm of the Korean committee of the United Nations Children’s Fund, the aid organization for children exposed to poverty, disea

Dec. 19, 2012

A senior police officer has joined an honorable group of large-sum donors by giving 100 million won to charity Tuesday.Park Sung-soo, chief of Hanam Police Station in Gyeonggi Province, pledged Tuesday to donate 100 million won to Community Chest of Korea. With the pledge, he has become the 186th member of the Honor Society which consists of those who donate or pledge to donate 100 million won ($93,000) or more within a year to the charity fund-raiser.He also has become the first police officer

Dec. 12, 2012

Knitting has been one of Sohn Sung-ja’s favorite pastimes during winter, but this year, she has found another reason to pick up the needles ― to save lives.“I am knitting bonnets for babies in Africa,” said Sohn, a 64-year-old grandmother of four, living in Seoul. “I heard that many babies there die of cold, because temperatures drop sharply at night,” she added. “I have completed four and am now working on the fifth one.” Sohn is among tens of thousands of Koreans participating in Save the Chil

Dec. 12, 2012

At a Sinseon Seolnongtang restaurant, some customers order a bowl of rice with 30 percent less than the usual amount. The saved rice is then donated to help feed starving children in Africa.It is one campaign conducted since 2007 by the food franchise to help the less fortunate and the marginalized. Around 3,000 customers participated in the charity effort in two months starting September. Seolleongtang, a broth made from simmered ox bones and beef, is one of Koreans’ most beloved dishes.Oh Chun

Dec. 5, 2012

International aid not only helps people in need, but also keeps the world safer from threats stemming from poverty and inequality, according to Lee Il-hwa, chairman of Good Neighbors, Korea’s leading nongovernmental organization. “We should share some of our economic prosperity with other countries not only for a humanitarian reason but also to prevent the chaos that would be started by poverty, diseases and war,” he said.Born to a devout Christian family, Lee, 65, always thought he would live f

Nov. 28, 2012

South Korean LPGA Tour star Choi Na-yeon has made a donation to a U.S. grant program for junior golfers, the tour said Wednesday.In a statement, the LPGA Tour said Choi contributed $30,000 to the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program to provide golf equipment to girls beginning to take interest in the game.Choi, the No. 2-ranked female golfer in the world, won twice in 2012, including the season-ending CME Group Titleholders last weekend. In July, she won her first career major at the U.S. Women’s Open.T

Nov. 21, 2012

Only 3 percent of Koreans donate blood, which is a scary experience for most. But for Hwang Eui-seong, a retired sergeant major, it is a habit that he has done every two weeks for over 35 years.“I saw on a TV news report that a huge amount of blood was imported from other countries including China,” Hwang said as he recalled a day in 1975 when he began donating blood. “As an army officer who serves for this country, I could not just sit still and do nothing.”He recorded his 600th blood donation

Nov. 21, 2012

The presidential prize of this year’s 7th Korea Overseas Service Awards will go to the late missionary Lim Yeon-sim who devoted her last 28 years to community service in Turkana in northern Kenya before dying of an endemic in August.The Korea International Cooperation Agency said Wednesday that it would present the awards to eight overeas volunteers at its headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on Nov. 23.Lim was dispatched to Kenya by the Yeouido Full Gospel Church in 1984 with the missio

Nov. 14, 2012

Though unavoidable, one thing hard to accept in one’s life is death.For those who have less than a year to live due to terminal illness it is even harder to live the rest of their lives in peace, instead living with misery and fear.Ro You-ja, 69, a nun and the director of St. Paul’s Home Hospice Center, helps people who have incurable diseases, mostly cancer, live the last days of their lives with hope and happiness.Ro has devoted her life to the people on the brink of death for 32 years, and st

Nov. 14, 2012

Taxi driver Kim Young-chan has been devoted to volunteering for elderly and disadvantaged people for the past 20 years. Kim and several colleagues established community service group Saranghwe in 1992 when they were given licenses for a private taxi business by Seoul Metropolitan Government. It has grown into an organization with about 30 taxi drivers.“We agreed we used to have difficult lives, but now that the government gives us benefits, we should return to society and help others when we can

Nov. 7, 2012

PHNOM PENH ― Construction tycoon Lee Joong-keun believes music and sports are the best means of building bonds between different cultures and people. Since 2003, the Booyoung Group chairman has seen his company construct schools and donate electric pianos and sports facilities to hundreds of poor villages mostly in Southeast Asia and Africa.Last Friday, he attended the opening of a taekwondo training center funded and built by the company in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.“Taekwondo is Korea’s national sp

Oct. 31, 2012

Community Chest of Korea said its club of rich donors, Honor Society, received an overseas Korean businessman as a member for the first time. The exclusive membership is given only to those who donate at least 100 million won ($92,000) to the charity organization. The nation’s largest charity organization said Honor Society enrolled 54-year-old Kim Hui-sang, the president of a local trade company in Hong Kong, as its first overseas Korean and the 162th member of the club. Community Chest of Kore

Oct. 31, 2012

Born in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province, home to the Korean folk song Jeongseon Arirang, Kim Young-soo, a 50-year-old barber, often talks proudly of the scenic views of his mountainous hometown. Clippings of newspaper articles with pictures of the region are on the wall of his barbershop, which he has run for four years in Amsa-dong, eastern Seoul. He has been going to the Jumong Rehabilitation Center for kids suffering from cerebral palsy every third Thursday since 1996 to give the children there h

Oct. 24, 2012