Hyundai Motor has turned an old college building into a center for multicultural families in the Vietnamese city of Can Tho, to bridge the cultural gap and provide Korean language services, the company said Thursday.

The center is a part of a 1 billion won ($943,000) project by the carmaker to help Vietnamese women who are married to, or plan to get married to, Korean men while they are in Vietnam and Korea, and also to support their economic independence later on. 

More than 20 percent of Vietnamese brides are from Can Tho, the biggest city of the Mekong Delta where the Han-Viet Multicultural Center is located.

Since 2016, the Korean carmaker has been supporting multinational families in the city in cooperation with the Korea Center for the United Nations Human Rights Policy (Kocun), the Korean consulate in Ho Chi Minh and the Community Chest of Korea.

With the support of Hyundai Motor, Kocun has provided marriage and legal counsel, job education programs and Korean language and culture learning classes to brides-to-be or those returning to their hometown after a divorce.

Extending its services, the newly opened center will open a free legal counsel service, a children’s library and classes on multiculturalism.

Of the 350,000 foreign women who tied the knot with Korean men between 2000 and 2016, 25 percent of them were Vietnamese, according to Kocun’s survey.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)