Hyundai Motor Donates US$150,000 To Habitat For Humanity’s Sichuan Earthquake Response

The Korean Carmaker Also Supports University Student Volunteers On Habitat Builds In Sichuan

CHENGDU, 2nd September 2009: South Korean auto manufacturer Hyundai Motor recently presented a US150,000 donation to Habitat for Humanity for post-earthquake reconstruction in China’s Sichuan province. Representatives from Hyundai-Kia Motors Group China as well as HFH Korea and HFH China were present at the ceremony. Guests included Hyundai’s director of corporate planning, Kim Young-man, and general manager Lee Kwang-ki.

Guests present at the donation ceremony included (from left) Lee Kang-jin, HFH Korea’s secretary general; Young Sou-nam, chief sales officer, Dongfeng Yueda Kia Motors; Chen Yong, secretary of Xiaoyudong town government, Pengzhou city; Kim Young-man, director of corporate planning, Hyundai-Kia Motors Group China; and Habitat’s Hosea Lai.

(Clockwise from top left) Happy Move volunteers from South Korea working hard in Yangping village, Sichuan; showing delight at the end of build; and having fun while playing games with local children.

The check presentation took place after 110 Korean university students built in Sichuan in a first-time partnership between Hyundai-Kia and Habitat. The volunteers were divided into two teams who worked one group after another in Yangping village, Xiaoyudong town, about three hours’ drive from Sichuan’s capital Chengdu. The volunteers worked on three houses and carried out various tasks such as passing bricks, backfilling for the foundation, mixing cement and passing buckets of mortar.

The volunteers who built in Sichuan were part of a larger group of 500 volunteers called “Happy Move. Through its website, Hyundai Motor launched the volunteer recruitment drive which attracted 10,000 students from universities all over South Korea.

Hyundai eventually selected about 500 volunteers to work with various non-governmental organizations such as Habitat for Humanity. Other than working with HFH China in post-earthquake reconstruction in Sichuan, Happy Move volunteers also went to India on a medical mission and another team was in Inner Mongolia, China for a tree-planting project in the desert.

Prior to traveling overseas for their volunteer stints, all the 500 “Happy Move” volunteers attended an orientation camp organized by HFH Korea in Gangwon province in July. During the four-day orientation camp, the volunteers also formed teams to build with HFH Korea’s affiliates in Goonsan, Daejeon and Daegu.