POSCO Supports Korean Volunteers In Indonesia For Second Time

March 24th, 2011

More Than 100 University Students Build With Habitat Families In West Java

(Top) POSCO volunteers being given a warm welcome by the community. (Middle) Volunteers worked on 10 houses. (Bottom) Outside of the build, volunteers had time to interact with the local community.

JAKARTA, 24th March 2011: For a second consecutive year, Habitat for Humanity Indonesia hosted student volunteers supported by South Korean steel group POSCO.

Over 100 university students from Korea built with Habitat home partners, local students and staff from POSCO Indonesia. The build site is located in Sentul, Borgor city, West Java province, about two hours’ drive from Jakarta.

In nearly two weeks, the volunteers helped to build 10 houses in Babakan Madang village. They mixed cement, lay bricks, dug to install septic tanks and painted the exterior of houses.

The volunteers’ efforts made a difference to a village where three-quarters of 25,500 families live below the poverty line. More than 70 percent of the families do not have latrines in their houses. Over 60 percent of the families have to walk some distance to collect water from the reservoir or a nearby river.

“We only built 10 houses, yet we built high social awareness for the younger generation. This is important because this generation will play the role to govern our country,” said Kim Dong-ho, president director of Krakatau-Posco.

The build, which took place in January 2011, marked the second time that POSCO has supported such an event in Indonesia.

In early 2010, more than 100 Korean university students who were supported by POSCO built in earthquake-struck Pangalengan subdistrict, Bandung regency, West Java.

POSCO earlier funded Global Village volunteer teams who built with Habitat in India in 2008 and in Thailand in 2009.