 |
“RaonAtti,” a team of college volunteers organized by KB Kookmin Bank and YMCA Korea, pose with local children in the Philippines. (KB Financial Group) |
KB Financial Group and its major subsidiaries have set out to strengthen their global operations of community services for 2013.
The nation’s leading financial group currently serves over 400,000 corporate clients and 26 million retail customers through a network of around 1,200 branches at home and abroad.
It incorporated four key categories ― youth, global, environment and senior welfare ― to fulfill corporate social responsibilities.
Back in November 2011, KB Financial launched a large-scale social contribution project with some 25,000 employees called “KB Star Dream Volunteers,” who altogether accumulated a total of 250,000 hours of community service that best suits the needs of localities.
It donated 3,000 bicycles to a children’s charity foundation to aid economically underprivileged children in Vietnam and Cambodia.
In a statement, the group said the donated bicycles will help these children save money as well as time to study, in addition to making a positive impression on local neighbors.
It has also carried out a long-term global social volunteer project in Cambodia since 2008, running the gamut of house repair, to food aid and bathing services for children. Volunteers from KB Kookmin Bank, the flagship unit of the group, joined the move in 2009, repairing houses and repainting the old walls of local hospitals.
The commercial bank launched the ninth volunteer fellowship named “RaonAtti,” in partnership with the YMCA Korea in February 2013.
Thirty student applicants from colleges nationwide who are selected by the bank as the RaonAtti volunteers, engage in five months of volunteer work in seven Asian countries ― India, Bangladesh, East Timor, Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
The RaonAtti volunteers are placed in these countries to help with language education for children and hold training sessions for disabled youths.
KB Kookmin Bank also supports heart surgeries for Cambodian children in need, in coordination with the Financial Supervisory Service of Korea and the Salvation Army Korea. In September 2012, three Cambodian children benefited from this private-state alliance program, and were brought to Korea to receive heart surgery.
One of the three children was 18-month-old Monica, who could have lost her life if her surgery was delayed any further due to economic reasons.
KB Investment & Securities, the stock brokerage unit of KB Financial, supported the renovation of an elementary school in a local area in Laos under the project name “Rainbow Classroom,” in partnership with the Korea Food for the Hungry International, a Christian non-governmental organization.
The two donors raised funds through both corporate and employees’ donation.
Before the renovation, students studying in the old local school dealt with water leaks from the ceiling on rainy days. Some of the students had to study on playgrounds due to a classroom shortage.
The Rainbow Classroom project revolved around creating a clean and safe studying environment for the local children of Laos, the securities firm stated.
By Chung Joo-won (
joowonc@heraldcorp.com)
