Asiana donates 'bags of love' to Cambodian children

A female employee of Asiana Airlines helps a student with a school bag donated by the airliner at Kdei Run Elementary School in Cambodia, Thursday. The company donated 586 backpacks and other school supplies worth 13 million won. / Courtesy of Asiana Airlines

12-09-2010
By Lee Hyo-sik
The Korea Times

Asiana Airlines, one of Korea’s two flagship carriers, has been involved in a wide range of corporate social responsibility activities in developing countries over the years to help the world become a better place for everyone to live.

This year is no exception. The company has set up street lights in Cambodia, installed water tanks in China and built houses for the underprivileged in Vietnam.

Ahead of the year-end holiday, airline employees have prepared something special for students in Cambodia. Rather than hold a typical year-end party that often involves drinking alcohol, 366 ground crew members and service personnel at Incheon International Airport decided to purchase and donate 586 school bags to children from poor families in the southeastern Asian nation.

After raising 13 million won in donations over the past month, a group of airline employees flew to Cambodia Thursday to visit Kdei Run Elementary School located in the farming area of the country and delivered backpacks and other school supplies.

``Instead of spending money to throw a year-end celebration party in Korea, it is so much more meaningful to buy school supplies and give them to students here. I felt something special when I saw the innocent smiles on their faces,’’ said Lee Seung-hoon, one of Asiana employees who visited Cambodia.

Lee said he and other workers would like to continue to get involved in diverse corporate social responsibility activities in the future to help make a difference in the lives of the underprivileged in Korea and in other countries.

``I cannot wait to show my colleagues back home the footage that I filmed here, including the donation ceremony. I would like to share this special feeling with them,’’ he said.

Asiana Airlines plans to expand the scope of its corporate social responsibility in the future to reach across the globe.

``We would like to perform good deeds in places where we maintain a business presence. We will systematically organize corporate social responsibility activities to more effectively help the unfortunate in the developing world,’’ an Asiana spokesman said.

He said the company will actively support goodwill projects voluntarily organized by employees.

In August, the company installed solar-powered street lights on the Cambodia-Korea Friendship Road near Angkor Wat, Cambodia, in cooperation with the Korea International Cooperation Agency. The airliner set up 16 street lights and plans to add up to 10 each year through 2015.

In July, company employees built and donated water tanks in the drought-stricken inland of China by investing 60 million won. Asiana Airlines also constructed and donated homes to poor families in Vietnam in June, in cooperation with UNICEF.