Ba Ria Hospital Charity Kitchen

POSCO Vietnam’s volunteer campaign, which took place in 3 areas of the Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, was carried out under the theme “Protect the Environment and Aid the Disheartened.” To this end, POSCO Vietnam employees visited Ba Ria Hospital on June 10 to congratulate its 30^th anniversary and serve food to its patients. Ba Ria Hospital has only 300 beds, but POSCO Vietnam prepared food for 700 people in order to serve not only the patients but also their relatives.

“This is the first time I’ve taken part in volunteer work in Vietnam,” said Mr. Yun Yang Su, a newly appointed general director of POSCO Vietnam. “It makes me happy to see the patients’ faces when they’re enjoying their food. I think they haven’t had anything to eat for hours,” he added.

“This is the most delicious food I’ve ever had since I was at this hospital. Thank you POSCO Vietnam so much for my full meal,” said Mrs. Tran Thi Tam, 69, a patient who lives 40km away from the hospital. Despite her old age, Mrs. Tam lives in a tattered home and labors day after day to make a living. Much of her hard-earned money goes into the treatment and medicine for her heart disease. The rest is spent on bare necessities. Because she does not have enough money, she eats much less than she should, and her health condition is getting worse day by day. Mrs. Tam was not the only one in such a plight, and POSCO Vietnam employees felt mixed emotions of joy and sadness while aiding the patients and their relatives at Ba Ria Hospital.

Community Repair Services at Chau Pha Commune

POSCO Vietnam also visited Chau Pha commune of the Tan Thanh district. The destitute commune was facing three problems: First, there weren’t any handrails in the neighborhood’s two bridges which made it dangerous for the locals to cross. Second, the rainy season was expected to arrive in the end of the month, but most houses in the neighborhood had leaky roofs. Last, several houses lacked sufficient lighting for daily activities and for the children to study.

Repairing the community was a challenge, but POSCO Vietnam faced it with unparalleled enthusiasm: In just one day, the volunteer team finished installing handrails for the two bridges, fixed the roofs of 5 houses, and installed lights in 10 houses.

“Today, the POSCO Vietnam volunteers worked over noon to finish these bridges,” said Mr. Tran Van Lam, a resident living near the bridge. “When it rains heavily, the bridges often get flooded and people can’t see anything. Now with the handrails installed, my children aren’t in danger anymore when traveling to school crossing this bridge. I thank the volunteers so much,” he said.

Apart from performing general repair work, POSCO Vietnam volunteers visited the family of Mr. Nguyen Van Phong, who suffered brain and leg injury while working in a factory. Though Mr. Phong labored all his life, his earnings were meager. After becoming disabled, he stays in bed and depends on his wife for survival. POSCO Vietnam employees promptly visited the Phong residence after hearing about Mr. Phong’s plight. They fixed the leaky roofs and concreted the walls with thick nylon in case of heavy rain. They left with promises to come back in the near future to build an adequate home for Mr. Phong and his family.

Cleaning Up Long Hai Beach – the newly discovered beach of Vung Tau City

Long Hai is a newly discovered beach at Ba Ria-Vung Tau province with beautiful transparent water which attracts thousands of tourists who come and enjoy every weekend. It would have been nice if these tourists enjoyed the beach without any environmental consequences, but the truth is that they leave a lot of garbage and waste such as plastic cans, nylon bags, and paper.

Although Long Hai is 50km away from the POSCO Vietnam office, it did not stop the enthusiastic volunteer team from jumping in to pick up the waste and garbage along the beach.

“It was so hot today, so we arrived early to collect the waste and garbage,” said Mr. Huy, POSCO-Vietnam’s manager of Training and Education Team. “Our goal was to raise awareness of protecting the environment to the local people and the tourists,” he said.

Moving Forward For a Better World

POSCO Vietnam aims to build a “POSCO Village” this year at the at the resettlement area of Tan Hoa commune in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province. Beginning in September 2014, the planned project consists of 85 houses for people in need to be built within the next two years.

For POSCO Vietnam, doing business does not simply mean generating profit. Quoting general director Yun Yang Su’s comments on corporate citizenship: Cultivating ties with the local community via practical CSR activities is equally important, making the company mature with stable growth.

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◈ What is ‘POSCO Global Volunteer Week’ ?

The Global Volunteer Week, starting in 2010, is hosted to settle in sharing as a corporate culture within POSCO, as a global corporate citizen, and is POSCO`s unique social contribution activity to globally increase POSCO Family`s sense of belonging and pride.

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In Korea, POSCO employees engaged in various volunteer work: Some helped agricultural communities in Pohang and Gwangyang, while others participated in building homes with Habitat for Humanity and in ‘Clean Ocean Volunteers’, POSCO’s sea environment preservation volunteer initiative. Some also volunteered to preserve our cultural heritage at Gyeoungju, a city of much historical significance. CEO Kwon Ohjoon also volunteered to deliver lunch boxes to neglected elders living alone at permanent rental housing for the poor.

Now, let’s have a look at what POSCO employees around the globe did to help their local communities in this 2014 POSCO Global Volunteer Week!

Indonesia Krakatau: Repairing Schools and Religious Facilities

[POSCO Indonesia team helped repair schools and religious facilities]

POSCO employees at Krakatau, Indonesia visited local schools and religious sites to help improve the conditions by cleaning, painting and repairing the buildings. Props to team Indonesia!

China Qingdao: Warmhearted Caring for Deaf Children

[POSCO China had a meaningful time with deaf children]

In China, POSCO employees cared for deaf children and helped improve the living conditions of ethnic Koreans.

Malaysia MKPC: Remodeling Welfare Center for the Elderly

[Employees at POSCO Malaysia helped remodel a welfare center for the elderly]

POSCO Employees at Malaysia MKPC pulled up their sleeves to remodel a nearby center for senior citizens and clean up local schools. Kudos to POSCO Malaysia for their hard work in spreading love to the community!

POSCO Japan – Cleaning the Streets & Bazaar Event

[POSCO Japan employees cleaned the streets around Nagoya Castle]

POSCO Japan employees cleaned up the area around Nagoya Castle and Arakawa River. They also held a bazaar event for the physically challenged. “I had a meaningful time aiding and caring for the physically challenged during the bazaar event. I’m looking forward to more opportunities to do volunteer work,” said Takimoto Mami, a JEPC employee who participated in the event. “It makes me feel happy and proud to be a part of POSCO when I see my fellow employees actively participate in volunteer work year after year,” said Jung Min Kim, a JEPC employee who oversees global volunteer work.

POSCO Vietnam: Charity Kitchen

Also, POSCO Vietnam employees helped out a charity kitchen run by a nearby hospital. They delivered the food to people living in poverty-stricken areas. Aren’t you hungry for more interesting episodes? Hello, POSCO blog’s next post will be a close-up story of the Vietnam volunteer work experience with commentaries from POSCO Vietnam employee. Stay tuned!

The POSCO global family had a meaningful time in their respective locations during 2014 POSCO Global Volunteer Week. POSCO will continue its efforts to spread the love as a responsible corporate citizen.

For a Better World

With a slogan “For a Better World,” POSCO Vietnam visited Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. In Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Tan District, Marketing Division of POSCO-Vietnam paid a visit and delivered food for around 120 the disabled, poor and homeless people.

A group of 34 POSCO volunteers gathered at the Elderly and Lonely Caring Center of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province’s Long Dien District, a home of the happy house for 105 homeless old people. Understanding the difficulties of the elderly at the center, POSCO volunteers cleaned the facility for a fresher and cleaner environment. They also held a small session to guide them on how to maintain daily hygiene. After the housekeeping, our volunteers served fresh and nutritious food for the elderly living in the facility as well as presenting gifts. It was a truly heartwarming scene as both POSCO employees and the people in the house sincerely expressed their happiness for the activity.

Cleaning up the lovely beach of Vung Tau

While they were working for the happy house in Long Dien District, another group of POSCO Vietnam volunteers took the responsibility of collecting the waste at Vung Tau beach. The beach is well-known for its fine sand seaside, longer than 10 kilometers. The lovely tourist attraction is always filled with excitement and busy with local and foreign visitors.

Although the hot summer of Vietnam was boiling hot on the day, 40 volunteers from POSCO Vietnam still went along to the place and actively picked up all the waste left by tourists. POSCO Vietnam’s employee, Ms. Hanh said, “This is the first time I participate in POSCO Family Volunteer Week. Although it was really sunny and hot, we still went for the cleaning up process along the beach to protect the environment. I would like to help and share more with the poor and needed people. I am really happy that I was a part of this initiative.” Mr. Lee Kwang Yung, General Director of POSCO Vietnam, who also took his part in the voluntary work told us, “POSCO Vietnam and POSCO SS Vina will offer more social activities for community development and make our efforts to implement successfully to our CSR activities for diverse local communities.”

POSCO Vietnam will continue marching on across the country with good wills

During ‘POSCO Global Volunteer Week,’ POSCO Family in Vietnam also visited An Lac Orphanage of Dong Nai province, Hai Duong Social Patronize Centre in Hai Duong Province and Dong Nai Province’s Nhon Trach Industrial zone to clean up, take care of babies and children, offer daily hygiene equipment and repair run-down facilities for the locals’ health and safety.

I heard POSCO Vietnam will kick off a new scheme called ‘Dream Village Project’ in this year. By joining in ‘Beyond Vietnam’ and ‘Habitat Vietnam’ projects in July and December, POSCO Vietnam will build a total of 24 houses for the poor and socially neglected people at Tan Hoa Commune and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province’s Tan Thanh district. We will also establish the Tan Hoa Public Education Center for local students so they can have easy access to the IT training classes and scholarship. When these are done, ‘Hello, POSCO’ will be the first place I will write to so our global readers can be updated with POSCO Vietnam’s latest achievements.