Helping to heal

Expats in Korea have also been helping improve Open Door’s facilities for some of the country’s neediest kids.

A play therapy room was opened at Open Door’s newly extended Yangpyeong center this week thanks to the British Association of Seoul’s 70 million won ($59,000) donation to the charity in 2010.

“The play therapy room has been built and will be available to both the residents and to families referred from the local area,” said BASS Welfare Coordinator Ruth Attewell.

“This is somewhere children can come and play with trained therapists, allowing them to explore past traumas and deal with behavioral difficulties.”

The new therapy room is part of a new building added to existing facilities opened in 2003 and will house 24 children aged from 5-years-old to teenagers.

BASS has donated almost 270 million won to the charity which is one of the many beneficiaries of the annual Queen’s Birthday Ball and other fund-raising events sponsored by Standard Chartered, HSBC, Turkish Airlines, Chevron, Homeplus, Pernod Ricard, Chanel, Fidelity and Hyatt.

Attewell said 100 percent of all cash donations went to charity, adding: “We are always looking for new sponsors and would welcome support from the Korean business community, as well as the foreign investment community.”

Staff of CLSA Korea Stockbrokers also visit Open Door every couple of months to play with the children. Michael Chambers said: “It has been a very humbling experience for us working in financial markets to work with children with so little but so much joy.”

To find out more about BASS go to: www.britishseoul.com.