A large-scale fire caught the poor village in the San Roque region in Navotas, Philippines in January last year. The fire spread uncontrollably and eventually ate up San Roque Elementary School, which was the landmark epitome of the poor town’s hope.

Heart to Heart Foundation and Daum got together about giving young children in the poor village hope and dream and worked out building the Global Hope School in the San Roque region. They celebrated the completion of school on the 12th last month. The construction fund was sponsored by Daum employees.

“To raise the fund we held bazars and took proceeds from the company cafeteria. We also set up regular donation programs. Now a lot of our employees are showing interest, and a group of us are visiting the Global Hope School in May for volunteer work.”

This project does not end with the construction. “We are aware that doing the school building will not automatically lead them to hope,” said Yook Shimna, a team leader of corporate social responsibility at Daum, “and we’ll need to do much more for real changes.”

“So 100 Daum employees have partnered with Heart to Heart Foundation to sponsor scholarships for students at the Global Hope School for three years, and the company will match the employees’ contribution for additional support.”

Heart to Heart Foundation is in charge of planning programs for the Global Hope School. It worked on setting up programs that meet the needs of the local community and planted seeds for real changes.

“Due to the insufficient classrooms, it used to be 80 students in one classroom on three shifts. But we built more classrooms and now one classroom will accommodate 50 students on two shifts.”

Furthermore, before this change, children went to school for about four hours a day, but the Global Hope School also offers after-school activities for them. Arts, music, taekwondo and computer lessons are quite popular among the students and parents. In particular, the computer instruction will likely inspire new vision from students, drawing strong interest from other schools nearby.

The Global Hope School project will continue beyond the construction. Daum will provide support for the operation of the school for next two years, and Heart to Heart will sponsor lunches for 500 students at the Global Hope School.

The meeting on the 31st was about sharing the achievements and vision together. It was not about benefactors and beneficiaries exchanging kind remarks. They all talked about what needs to be done to sustain the school, and benefactors, operators, and beneficiaries each talked about how they will play their respective roles to meet the goals. Furthermore, Daum talked about its specialty, the IT business, and how it can utilize its strength to benefit students at Global Hope School.

Yoon Joohee, a director of Heart to Heart, said “It was a great experience to see once again how important it is for the beneficiaries, donors and operation staff understand each other well. I think there is a great possibility for Daum’s vision and business to grow into an organic relationship with Global Hope School’s sustainable development.”

Mayor Mr. Tiangco of Navotas took a tour with Heart to Heart staff around the Daum offices where he got insight into the IT industry of Korea as well as hospitals and medical services and after-school activities in Korea and commented that his visit to Korea gave him much inspiration.