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

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

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

Nurses and baby sitters cradle crying babies at a clinic inside the Eastern Social Welfare Society, an adoption agency in Mapo, Seoul. They check each baby’s health before starting a journey to find a new family.At the end of each baby’s bed, a small tag shows their name, birth date and destination.Oh Ji-young, 40, who has been serving at the ESWS since 1995, is now helping single mothers stand on their own.Her dedication to single mothers, adopted babies and adoptive families earned her an awar

Actress Lee Yoon-mi participated in a charity bazaar on Thursday to help raise money for medical treatment of children awaiting adoption. The “Deep Autumn Big Love” charity fundraiser, held in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul, was organized by the Social Welfare Society, an adoption organization specializing in helping single mothers and their children’s adoptions.The 31-year-old actress first came to public by receiving the best talent award from Super Elite Model Competition in 1998 and debuted in 2003 as

A senior officer at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has been awarded a certificate from an international association for fund-raising professionals, according to the school in Daejeon.Kim Hyun-soo, 37, Senior Major Gift Officer of the KAIST Development Foundation was named earlier this month as Certified Fund Raising Executive by CFRE International, KAIST said.CFRE International is an independent organization dedicated to the certification of fund-raising executives by set

Many elderly in ‘jjokbang’ left to die aloneAfter 15 years of volunteering, Hong In-sik is still passionate about helping elderly people living in jjokbang, or tiny rooms that can barely accommodate one person. Since last year Hong has been the president of a senior volunteer group organized by the Yeongdeungpo District Office in Seoul.The group of 195 people in their 50s or 60s helps each person in the rundown jjokbang town in Munrae-dong in the district. In summer the rooms with no proper vent

The Korea Tourism Organization has invited Japanese tourists with disabilities to Korea in its effort to offer more travel opportunities to underprivileged people. A group of 30 Japanese tourists from Fukuoka accompanied by their caretakers started their tour on Tuesday in Seoul, and are expected to visit major tourist attractions in the city including Myeong-dong, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Namsan Hanok Village and Han River through Friday. “We will make tourism barrier-free for people with disabili

‘Everyone is born with the ability to survive’Mentally disabled people should be given opportunities to learn how to live independently and assimilate into society though it would pose a tough challenge, said Kim Soo-jin, director of the Seoul Group Home Support Center.“Society sometimes frets about letting mentally disabled people live alone. But everyone is born with the ability to survive and solve their own problems,” said Kim, 42, who has been working for 20 years on a program to encourage

Maksim Mrvica, a Croatian pianist whose musical passion was sparked after catching a glimpse of a piano at his best friend’s house when he was eight years old, inspired Korean children with disabilities with music lessons. The renowned classical-pop crossover pianist participated in mentoring classes with disabled children at Pony Chung Hall in southern Seoul on Tuesday.“All children should be surrounded in an environment full of love and support,” said Mrvica in a statement released by his agen

Former hagwon boss helps mentally disabled open up through sculpture classesIn a small classroom, students start rolling and kneading clay after listening to the teacher’s instructions. Showered with praise and encouragement from their teacher, they become engrossed in shaping stems and petals to make flowers. Kim Jeong-min, 53, received a local welfare award from Seoul City for running a pottery class at Down Center for mentally disabled youth, which helps them gain psychological and emotional

The Korea International Cooperation Agency has constructed a general hospital in a poor district in Paraguay as part of its overseas assistance program. The state-run international aid agency held the opening ceremony on Monday for the hospital in San Pedro, the nation’s most underdeveloped city, 320 km northeast of the capital Asuncion. The KOICA said it has put $5.5 million into the three-year construction. The hospital will provide service to residents of San Pedro as well as nearby Concepcin

For the disabled, every day is a fight, welfare center counselor says A winding hillside road lined with tall trees and shrubs on the lower slopes of Achasan, eastern Seoul, leads up to a set of buildings bustling with people in wheelchairs and on crutches, chatting in high spirits. On the first floor of the main building of Jeongnip Public Welfare Institution, Korea’s first rehabilitation center, is a 20-something-square-meter office where a small woman with a bright smile has been guiding visi