SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION

Giving back to the community has long been a guiding philosophy for Korean Re. We have never forgotten people in need of warm hearts and helping hands. Over the years, we have been there for them to ease their pain and hardships, while also sharing positive things with them.

Caring for the Basic Needs of Our Neighbors

Building Homes of Hope

Partnering with Habitat for Humanity Korea, Korean Re has been actively taking part in projects to build Homes of Hope for people living in homes that are in poor condition. In September 2019, almost 100 employee volunteers—led by CEO Jong-Gyu Won— participated on four different occasions to set up wooden houses in the village of Mokcheon, South Chungcheong Province. In 2020, we will continue to encourage more employees to take part in this project of sharing, and which aims to build up to five houses.

Sharing Meals with Our Close Neighbors

Korean Re has long been sharing good things with communities where we do business. Through a program called “Sharing Hopes with Our Neighborhood”, we share our warm hearts by serving food that is thoughtfully cooked by our employees. In October 2019, we organized four rounds of community food-sharing events at a local Red Cross volunteer center where groups of Korean Re employees cooked food and baked bread. The food was packed and then delivered to those underserved families living in the Jongno District of Seoul.

In addition, since 2004 Korean Re employees have helped financially disadvantaged families in Ihwa-dong, an inner city neighborhood in Seoul’s Jongno District, which is where Korean Re’s head office is located. This annual giving initiative was organized to make their winter a little warmer. Once again, in 2019, a group of Korean Re volunteers carried out door-to-door delivery of rice, noodles, kimchi and other necessities to single-parent households, elderly people living alone, and child-education centers.

Art & Culture

Nurturing the Dreams of Children & Teenagers with Developmental Disabilities

Korean Re has also been supportive of art and culture. Since entering into a sponsorship agreement with the Miral Welfare Foundation in 2017, Korean Re has continued to support a cello ensemble named Wing.

The ensemble is comprised of 20 autistic or intellectually challenged children and teenagers. Ever since becoming a new sponsor of the group in 2017, Korean Re has committed roughly KRW 100 million every year so that these young cello players can communicate with the world through music. The annual donation of funds has been used to pay for lessons and instrument repairs, as well as to organize concerts.

CEO Jong-Gyu Won said, “The (re)insurance industry was born out of a spirit of mutual aid. As a reinsurer, we have a social responsibility for paying attention to the happiness and safety of people all around us. This is particularly true with those who have developmental challenges, and deserve special care and attention from society so that they will not be isolated.” He added, “I hope that their hopeful messages in the form of beautiful melodies will continue to spread across the world.”

Overseas Disaster Relief in the Spirit of Mutual Aid

Every year since 2014, Korean Re has sent a group of employees primarily composed of new hires to help rebuild the typhoon-hit community of Ayutthaya, Thailand by taking part in projects that build houses for those who live in poor housing condition.

In 2019, our volunteer team stayed in the area for five days to participate in this project for a local village, doing everything from digging holes for septic tanks to mixing concrete and laying bricks for internal and external walls. Thanks to their firsthand experiences of being a part of the disaster relief effort, our young employees had an opportunity to practice the core value of insurance—helping each other in need. By continuing to implement the international corporate volunteering program to support the rehabilitation of communities devastated by natural disasters, we will put these CSR values into action at a level equivalent to our standing as a leading member of the global insurance industry.