Hyosung's overseas volunteer corps 'Smile Expedition' propagated love in Vietnam

2015.11.12




    “Thanks for coming from the far away Korea and giving medical treatment for poor neighbors. I want to keep working hard in Hyosung Vietnam and do many meaningful activities in the future like Smile Expedition.” → A new employee of Hyosung Vietnam (24 years old, Hong Nga)


    “I am pleased because the doctor from Korea gave me medical test and also correct toothbrushing education”

    → A student of Phuoc Thien Elementary School (a 8 year old girl, Tuyet Mai)


    “I have such chronic diseases as back pain, but I feel much better after treatment. I hope they will visit here again next year.” → A local resident (57 years old, Thi Can Nhung)

    Hyosung dispatched the overseas medical volunteer corps ‘Smile Expedition’ to Long Tho region of Hyunh Nhon Trach, Dong Nai near Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam, and the free medical treatment service is being given to the local residents from 8th to 14th together with the international relief organization Food for the Hungry.

    Smile Expedition means to “restore smile to those grimacing faces suffering from pain”. Hyosung has dispatched the Smile Expedition each year since 2011 to help development of each local community of its overseas work places. The Dong Nai region where the medical service is being given is the place where production plants of spandex and tire cord, Hyosung's main businesses, are located. Smile Expedition has given borderless human services to those local residents who cannot visit hospitals when sick due to long distance or lack of money, and is giving efforts to prevent diseases through education.

    Mr. Cho Hyun-joon Head of Strategic Headquarters (president) said, “To fulfill the role of a global citizen, Hyosung does not simply stay in domestic social contributions, but is trying to share with local communities of the overseas business places,” and “we will give our efforts to restore smile to more Vietnamese residents as a global company taking its social responsibility as well as doing its own business”.



    This year, 23 medical workers from the orthopedics, obstetrics/gynecology and pediatrics departments of Ehwa Univ. Mok-dong Hospital, Gacheon Univ. Gil Hospital Dental Center and Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine, and 50 volunteers from the Hyosung Vietnam Division employees were eagerly involved to restore smile to the local residents. The medical service team is taking care of health of the Vietnamese through the Western-Korean integrated medicine, and the Hyosung Vietnam Division employees are supporting for smooth medical services such as interpretation and medical room arrangement. Smile Expedition selects those residents who need medication through the regional Peoples Committee in advance, and guides them to the medical office by bus for treatment, and visits the patients who cannot come to the medical office for treatment.




    Hyosung Smile Expedition not only gave medical treatment but also visited the Phuoc Thien Elementary School in the region to do basic health check-up of 300 elementary school students. Smile Expedition has visited Phuoc Thien Elementary School each year since 2013 and checks those students who received examination in the previous year, through medical check-up.

    Also, Smile Expedition gave each student a toothbrush-paste package as a gift and such dental health education as TBI (Tooth Brushing Instruction), and delivered emergency kits containing first aid supplies and medications to nearby elementary schools. Providing pregnant women expecting childbirth in the Hyosung's Vietnam work places with the book ‘Pregnancy and Childbirth’ printed in the Vietnamese language and giving them childbirth-related education, Smile Expedition is receiving many positive responses.




    Smile Expedition treated 700 people in the first year, and has steadily increased the number of treated people, to provide medical services to more neighbors. Hyosung has restored smile to about 6,700 Vietnamese people from 2011 when the Smile Expedition activity began to this year. Since 2013, Korean medicine has been included into the treatment program and, in 2014, a Vietnamese youth Dinh Minh Tam (male, 19 years old) who was not curable in Vietnam was invited to Korea and follow-up treatment was given to him. And, the Smile Expedition activity is improved each year for higher quality medical services, just as the interior structure of the education room was modified for treatment, this year, in the Hyosung Vietnam's plant.


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