Under our "1% Sharing Movement", in which all employees and executives at Hansol Paper donate 1% of their wages and the company matches their contributions, we fund the building of schools and playgrounds for children in agricultural and fishing villages in Korea, as well as in less-developed countries around the world.
Since 2015, Hansol Paper has worked with Save the Children to build playgrounds for disadvantaged children in Korea's agricultural and fishing villages. Hansol Paper has made substantial contributions to creating safe play spaces for children, ensuring a balance between studying and play. This ensures that children can study hard, play hard, and keep their dreams alive. The children for whom the playgrounds were built were encouraged to participate from the design phase, and their thoughts and input were reflected in the final product. The 'Shingibangi (marvelous) Playground' in Wanju county, completed in summer of 2016, received an award for excellence for a public design project at the 9th Annual Public Design Awards.
To expand education opportunities for children overseas, Hansol Paper has worked with Save the Children since 2013 to operate education programs for children in less-developed countries in Asia and Africa. In addition to the central school-building projects, we support classroom / teacher's office repairs, dormitory construction, and toilet / canteen construction. To improve children's reading skills, we are consistently providing books and building new spaces where children can read. Thanks to Hansol Paper's contributions, more and more children are gaining access to better education in better environments each year.
In addition, Hansol Paper's plants provide scholarships and medical services support to local communities. The Janghang Plant has been providing scholarships to middle and high schools in the area since 2012 in order to help to foster regional talent and create jobs, and has been inviting students in environment-related departments in regional universities to visit our facilities. To ensure better health for the residents of the local communities in which we operate, we have been working with major medical institutions to provide free medical services to local residents. In particular, with rising levels of fine particulate matter in the air in winter, the Daejeon Plant donated 5,000 dust masks to Daedeok Ward Office for use by the more vulnerable members of the local community.
We organize volunteer clubs in the communities around our paper mills, and partner with welfare facilities and community groups to otherwise engage local residents through programs such as charcoal briquette deliveries, Kimchi-sharing and gift-giving on major national holidays. Other community support activities include bathing services for the elderly, and home repairs/refurbishments for isolated senior citizens. As an extension of our '1 % Sharing Movement', the ' Environmentally Friendly Recycled Paper 1 % Sharing Movement' commits 1 % of our monthly profits from sale of environmentally friendly recycled paper to the purchase of daily necessities for unsupported senior citizens.
Hansol Paper has consistently supported promising young artists. By hosting art exhibits and cultural exchanges, and sponsoring a range of arts and culture events, we have contributed profoundly to the development of local culture. Through the INSPER Awards, we are discovering the capable new designers who will lead Korean paper design into the future.
To provide further support to younger artists, the INSPER brand sponsored senior-year visual design students preparing their graduation pieces in 2018, providing the catalogs for their graduation exhibit.