POSCO : Beyond 5 Builds Houses of Generosity in Vietnam

- 1,200 University Student Volunteers
- Also a ``Messenger`` Spreading Korean Culture

POSCO`s University Volunteer Organization Beyond has taken its good-work to Vietnam.

Beyond 5 saw 120 people from the volunteering body take part from Dec. 25, 2011 to Jan. 5, 2012 in Vietnam`s Dienjangsang and Bungtausong, in a ``Habitat House Construction`` cultural-exchange and volunteering project.

The volunteers worked at Cho Gao to build 10 houses, all with on-site concrete foundation work, brick walls, and with windows fitted and the walls painted.
At the house-building event, Nam Sik, Head of POSCO`s Vietnam Office, took part, along with 10 people on a day-by-day volunteer basis, making the event all the more special. They also participated in a special moving-in ceremony at the House of Generosity built in Tan Thanh, which the members of POSCO Family Vietnam had helped with building.

``I was surprised by the ardor of the university volunteers, and by their consideration of their neighbors, with whom they so willingly took the time to communicate,`` said the Vietnam Habitat Coordinator Ngo My Xuan. ``To see them and their work, you have to say, Korea has a great future ahead of it.``

The volunteers also visited schools in the Dienjangsang and Bungtausong regions, which are blighted by poverty, repairing facilities and providing support with scholarships and education equipment, showing that they could do not only construction volunteer work, but work involving education as well. They also provided a ``Messenger`` service of Korean culture, both traditional and modern, whereby through the performances they put on things like swing-dance, K-pop, cheerleading and traditional Gangangsulae dances, drum dances, Taekwondo-based dances and even puppet dances.

In addition, there was also opportunity for the volunteers to visit the POSCO Vietnam factory, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Vietnam, and this also provided an opportunity for them to brush up on their knowledge about Korean companies, with a chance to speak and get to know the local young people there as well.

Meanwhile, POSCO, which established in 2007 its guiding principle for its social responsibility of ``fostering talent sharing,`` every year sees 100s of people register as volunteers from not only Korea, but also from Indonesia, India and Thailand, among others.

Seung-gyoo Yoon [e-mail]
(Materials = Social Contribution Group)

- POSCO University Volunteer Organization Beyond 5`s members in Vietnam, working on the house building volunteer project.