LG Innotek (CEO: Young Ho, Hur) take the initiative in sponsoring children from multi-cultural families.

On August 16th, LG Innotek held a launch ceremony for the “Mentoring of Hope” program, under which the company headquarters at Namdaemunro, Seoul, sponsor children from multi-cultural families, jointly with the Korea Foundation for Women (KFW).

Participants in the ceremony included CEO Young Ho, Hur, Hyeong Jo, the Director general of KFW, twenty employees of LG Innotek, and representatives of multi-cultural children (mentees).

The company has planned “Mentoring of Hope” program to provide empathetic and emotional support for children from multi-cultural families, to help them acquire a better understanding of cultural differences between nations and to adjust to Korean society well.

The “Mentoring of Hope” program, which enables face-to-face meetings between the mentoring staff and the children, covers virtually every kind of topic including family, friends, school life, and career issues. Under this program, ten LG Innotek employees who have completed a specialized coaching course are supposed to help the children to develop their potential abilities and achieve self-realization.

Many of the mentor staff, who were selected through an internal public contest, have social welfare-related certificates (i.e., social worker qualifications) or outstanding experience in volunteer services, with 870 hours teaching in night schools or mentoring foreign students.

The “Mentoring of Hope” program of LG Innotek runs methodically in three phases for a total of six months: the first phase provides an opportunity for mentors and mentees to build close relationships with each other through two mentoring sessions per month and one coaching session per month; the second phase gives both parties a chance to broaden their understanding and knowledge of foreign cultures through such activities as visiting cultural and historic sites.

The last phase of “Mentoring of Hope” involves supporting scholarships to children from multi-cultural families; five are selected as excellent mentees and given the opportunity to visit their mothers’ and fathers’ home countries.

The twenty teenagers chosen as mentees attend elementary, middle or schools and belong to multi-cultural families living in areas where the company’s headquarters and six branches are located (Gwangju, Gumi, Ansan, Osan, Paju, and Cheongju).

LG Innotek is planning to continue the program by running it for each 6-month period.

“What matters most for juveniles may be how they find their identities and how they build their self-respect,” said an official at LG Innotek. “To this end, we will be providing comprehensive support by means of the ‘Mentoring of Hope’ program to children from multi-cultural families”.

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