Philanthropy
Kim Junsu and his fans have been working closely with Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Korea, a major welfare organization that was established through the UN in 1997.
As reported in 2009, ADRA Korea had begun building houses and improving living conditions for their ‘Repair and Improvement’ project in underprivileged regions of Cambodia. The cause received much help from Junsu and his fans who donated money to the organization the previous year. The fan club members decided to give a thoughtful present by collecting donations and giving a fraction of it to ADRA Korea. Although Xiah Junsu is unknown to the people residing there, the village has been named ‘Xiah Junsu Village’ because of the generous donation. As ‘Xiah Junsu Village’ had attracted a lot of attention, this project is expanded to other areas including Pursat, for the purpose of creating safer living conditions for the impoverished children of Cambodia.
Since 2008, Junsu has been secretly working for ‘Habitat for Humanity’ project, which is also supported by ADRA Korea. The project aims to improve the environment of disadvantageous neighborhoods for people living in Dangjin-gun area. As of June 2013, eight houses had been built for the handicapped and elderly living alone in Dangjin-gun as well as other people in poor living conditions, including a multicultural family living in Taean-gun who has found a new home through the project.
Junsu is also ranked as the #1 celebrity for Happy Energy, an online donation campaign launched by Naver. He is helping the Jirani children's choir from Kenya, Africa, to support Jirani Arts School where the children will continue to learn music. He stated that people can find inspiration and love through music, and wants to help create a music school in Kenya.
On December 2011, it was revealed that with the help of Junsu, a school had been built in a small village of Vealvong in rural region of Pursat Province, Cambodia. The project was made possible through the efforts of Junsu's mother who highlighted the dire need of the residents living there after her visit to the area. Junsu who was moved by the local inhabitants' desire for their children to receive education despite having other pressing needs, decided to shoulder the construction costs for a new school building in Pursat. The school building was finished after 5 months of construction, made up of six classrooms, separate rooms for special programs, restrooms and clean water supply facilities. About 200 children start studying there for free, and an additional 100 are expected to enter soon.
As a soccer enthusiast and captain of the South Korean celebrities soccer team FC MEN (FC MEN includes actors, idols such as Kim Hyun Joong, B2ST‘s Doojoon, Kikwang, Yoseob, 2AM‘s Jinwoon, Seulong, and other entertainers), Junsu and his team have participated in various charity matches.
Read more about this topic: Junsu
Famous quotes containing the word philanthropy:
“I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Almost every man we meet requires some civility,—requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)