K-Mart brings happiness to disabled children centres

K-Mart volunteers intend to continue their visits to centres for disabled children

Explaining why K-Mart has chosen to regularly visit the centre, K-Mart general director and chairman of Korea Culinary Association, Ko Sang Goo said, “When visiting the disadvantaged kids at the centre, we felt our small efforts could provide support to the kids here and we’re happy to see their smiles.”

The Vietnam-Korea rehabilitation centre began running in June 2006. Its core functions are taking care of and providing rehabilitation for disabled children aged six to 18.

The centre is helping 112 kids with Down’s syndrome, autism, hearing impairments, and face problems with mobility and mental activities.

In a recent trip to the centre, K-Mart volunteer Lim Hyoung Jong was very anxious when he and some other staff were assigned to prepare Korean rice rolls or Kimbap, a typical Korean dish, together with the kids.

However, after giving instructions Jong was deeply moved when the children produced attractive Kimbap.

“At first I thought it would be too hard for the kids to do. But to my surprise, they were so smart. Next time if having a chance, I will come back and prepare other Korean dishes for the kids,” said Jong.

Besides providing the children a chance to taste a popular Korean dish, K-Mart volunteers also prepared a variety of presents for the kids including sweets and notebooks, $1,500 in cash, along with five wheelchairs to help the kids more easily integrate into the community.

“K-Mart will tailor more philanthropic activities and visit more centres in the upcoming period to be able to increase support for people facing difficult living conditions,” said Goo.

He said such charitable activities were often in areas the government finds difficult to regularly handle. So that businesses, state organisations and donors needed to combine efforts, making charitable activities an annual event so that such centres could benefit from public support more frequently.

“Through such activities, we know what these centres need and what we can do for them, from there working on most effective support plans,” Goo added.

Nguyen Van Han, the father of Nguyen Thi Huyen, a pint-size girl facing mobility difficulties who has lived at the centre for five years, came to visit his daughter during the K-Mart visit. He was very happy knowing that one of the wheelchairs was for his little girl and he and some other lucky parents would represent the centre to receive the donated wheelchairs. Han said his family lived in a small simple house in Son Dong hamlet, Tien Phuong commune in Hanoi’s Chuong My district.

Huyen was disabled from birth and had to live with her paternal grandmother from early age because her parents worked in other parts of the country. 

Huyen was brought to the Vietnam-Korea rehabilitation centre five years ago so she could continue to study and do rehabilitation exercises.

“To most other people, parting brings sorrow, but to my family this signifies luck because Huyen has a big family at the centre to help her overcome short-term difficulties while she strives for a better future,” said Han.