Hanwha Life will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its youth volunteer program “Happy Friends” in April, according to the insurance company.

Happy Friends is a joint initiative run by Hanwha Life Insurance and international children’s aid organization World Vision that promotes community service as a way to foster maturity and leadership in young people. 

This year’s Happy Friends will comprise 350 middle and high school students from 10 regions across the country.

The volunteers will visit children’s homes and homes for senior citizens, and will lead campaigns to encourage people to give up smoking, promote a friendly online commenting and preventing school bullying and violence.

Hanwha Happy Friends has also participated in community service initiatives over summer and winter vacation. In January, the teenagers delivered coal briquettes to senior citizens living alone in an old coal mining village in Gangwon Province. In August, they joined executives of Hanwha Life in cleaning up garbage and waste from the tidal flats on Ganghwado Island in the West Sea.

The Happy Friends program was established in January 2006, with over 3,200 young volunteers working with the group over the past nine years. Hanwha Life also operates the Hanwha Life Volunteer Service Group, which includes 25,000 Hanwha employees who devote at least 20 hours a year to community service.

By Won Ho-jung
(hjwon@heraldcorp.com)