Sookmyung I gifted children battling cancer with one and only hope school bags
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- Writer 커뮤니케이션팀
- 보도일자 2016-01-18
Sookmyung I relayed hope school bags to around 50 leukemia patients at Severance Yonsei Cancer Hospital in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, on December 16. The hope school bags are customized bags designed using pictures drawn by the child patients about their dream of a good memory.
Child leukemia patients experience great physical and emotional stress because they receive long-term treatment, including surgery, and are strictly prohibited from external contact. They particularly urgently need psychological healing because of a lack exchange with other children because they are unable to attend school, and the result of falling back in their studies.
Therefore, the design company Sookmyung I started the hope school bag project as a way of donating their talent, with the goal of supporting the child patients as they work hard to end their battle and regain their health. The company invited children and parents at the Severance Yonsei Cancer Hospital to a presentation explaining the process of the bag production, accepted applications, and produced around 50 bags over around three months under the supervision of Professor Kyung-ah Kim of the Department of Handcraft. In addition, the parents who were tired from nursing their child were surprised with eco-bags with a pattern print based on a picture drawn by their child. Director Hye-che Ahn of Sookmyung I said, “I felt a great sense of reward when a parent said, ‘My child was tired of battling cancer and always depressed, and I was so grateful when she jumped with joy after receiving the bag and said she wanted to walk and go to school soon.’”
The Homeplus eParan Foundation played a big role in the project, too. The eParan Foundation has been hosting the ‘Life-Saving Campaign’ with the Korean Leukemia and Child Cancer Association from 2012 and has been providing support for the surgery and treatment of children with leukemia. They empathized with the goal of this project and decided to sponsor us, and will be joining Sookmung I in the project in the future, too. The eParan Foundation said, “In addition to the 50 children who received a bag this time, we will receive help from the Korean Leukemia and Child Cancer Association and provide another 100 child leukemia patients with hope bags.”
President Sunhye Hwang of our university, Director Sung-hwan Doh of the Homeplus eParan Foundation, Chairman Jung-myung Lee of the Korean Leukemia and Child Cancer Association, and Director Nam-shik Jung of the Yonsei Severance Medical Center attended the event. President Hwang said, “I am happy to be a part of a significant project of a school company within an education institute,” and revealed, “We shall continue to actively participate in various public benefit businesses for the socially weak classes.”