Santa Claus has delivered gifts to children at a Seoul welfare center, with the help of the Finnish ambassador.

The Northern European country’s ambassador to Korea, Pekka Wuoristo, and Mr. Claus made the trip to Angel’s Haven in northeast Seoul to give a donation and presents to 60 children just before Christmas.

“The visit to Angel’s Haven was focused on the visit of Santa Claus, who is as we all know, a Finnish citizen,” Wuoristo said. “This is a long-running joke in the Scandinavian countries, but we are quite sure he is from Finland.”

The pair delivered gifts including Finnish chewing gum, books, chocolate and candy to the children at the Angel’s Home orphanage. The kids aged from 8-18 stay at the home, which is part of the special Angel’s Haven campus in Eunpyeong.

“It was very nice to see an organization really taking care of the people, which is important to all of us not just at Christmas time but at all times,” the ambassador added. “I would say that this is a really developed institute.”

The Gusan-dong center is unique because it hosts a school, hospital, sports center and disabled welfare center all in one place, as well as being home to 200 people aged from babies to adults.

“It means that we can provide one-stop services,” explained Yoo So-young, a coordinator in the Angel’s Haven planning office.

“This is very good for the disabled people as they can use the school, sports center and hospital without traveling.”

About 1,700 other people visit each day to use the services which also include a youth center to an elderly care facility.

“Some of our funds come from the government but most of the money we raise by ourselves or through sponsors and donors,” Yoo said of the center first established in 1959 as a home for five orphans of the Korean War.

More than 1,000 children have grown up at the Angel’s Home since then, going on to find careers in as varied fields as social work, research, teaching, government, art and medicine.

The boys and girls who met Santa were some of the residents referred to the center by the Seoul Metropolitan Government ― some of whom have mental disabilities; while others come from broken families.

“Even though they have parents, they are neglected or abandoned,” Yoo said.

“The Finnish visit was wonderful for them. The children were very surprised because it really did look like Santa Claus had come to see them.”

Ambassador Wuoristo handed over a donation raised by Santa during a raffle at the European Christmas Market earlier this month as well as learning the history of Angel’s Haven and meeting the children.

He said that embassy staff had had long discussions about which organization to donate to, but had decided on Angel’s Haven because of the good work it was doing and the fact that the embassy had worked with the center in previous years.

By Kirsty Taylor (kirstyt@heraldcorp.com)