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Hyosung dispatched the overseas medical volunteer corps ‘Smile Expedition’ to the Long Tho region of the Dong Nai Province near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and the ‘Smile Expedition’ is giving free medical service to the regional residents together with the international relief organization Food for the Hungry from 22nd to 25th.
Smile Expedition means to “Restore smile to faces drawn with pain and agony.” Smile Expedition began in 2011 and has restored smile to about 9 thousand Vietnamese.
The Dong Nai province where the medical volunteer service is being provided is the place where the world largest scale global production base of Hyosung's main businesses, spandex and tire cord, is located. Smile Expedition provides medical service to the regional residents who cannot get medical service because of lack of medical facilities and economic problems, and takes the lead of preventing diseases through education, to contribute to the regional community of the overseas workplace.
This year, the medical team composed of 28 persons from Department of Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Orthopedics and Traditional Medicine of the Gangdong Gyunghee University Hospital, Dentistry Center of Gachon University Gil Hospital and Eye Love Foundation and 50 volunteering employees from Hyosung Vietnam Division actively participated to restore smile to the residents.
The Medical Service Team of the Smile Expedition examines health of the Vietnamese residents through comprehensive medical check-up while the employees of the Hyosung Vietnam Division do interpretation and arrangement of the medical room to support for smooth medical service. Smile Expedition selected the patients to be treated through the Regional Peoples Committee in advance and guides them in a bus to the medical place.
Hyosung's Smile Expedition not only did the medical service but also visited the Long Tho Elementary School and Tien Phuoc Elementary School of the region to do the basic health check-up of about 500 elementary school students. This year, they visited the Long Tho Elementary School newly for check-up and, in the Tien Phuoc Elementary School they have visited for 4 years in a row since 2013, they are examining health of the students who were checked in the previous year through continuous check-up of the students.
Also, Smile Expedition did toothbrush education and fluorine treatment of teeth for the students. They gave the toothbrush & toothpaste gift sets to the elementary schools they visited, and also delivered the first aid boxes containing the first aid supplies and medicine.
On the other hand, the pregnance and delivery education given previously within the Hyosung Vietnam workplace was given in a larger scale, this year, at the Dong Nai Technical College for about 100 college students who were going to advance into society, and this received huge positive response.
Particularly, this year, the ophthalmology service was newly given after the medical team of the previous Smile Expedition gave the opinion that the regional residents had serious eyesight problems. The ophthalmology team plans to distribute glasses later to the low eyesight residents identified through eyesight test. Like this, Smile Expedition activity is promoted in such a way that more neighbors can benefit from medical service rather than it remains as an one-time event.
Smile Expedition treated about 700 patients in its first year 2011 and has provided medical service to about 9 thousand Vietnamese residents until this year. Effort is given to increase the number of medical specialties and expand the visiting area each year so that more neighbors can benefit from high quality medical service.
Particularly, since 2014, high risk patients discovered during treatment have been invited to Korea and received operation. Such patients include Dinh Minh Tam (male, 19 years old, right arm fracture complications), Tran Duc Tai (male, 18 years old, scull dent) and Pham Ngoc Hyuen (female, 11 months old, cleft lip and palate). Also, medical expense support is given so that the patients who cannot get treated because of economic problems can get treatment there.
Hyosung is not only contributing to regional economy vitalization through establishment of the Vietnam Division and plants but also doing social contribution activities including Smile Expedition at numerous regions of Vietnam. At the end of the last year, Hyosung was awarded the Vietnamese Minister of Planning & Investment Prize at the ‘Vietnam Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award Ceremony’ held by the Korean Ministry of Industry, Trade & Energy and the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning & Investment and supervised by KOTRA.
