- Providing cultural and artistic experience opportunities to culturally marginalized groups through the 'Visiting Opera' performance, and offering long-term and continuous support to emerging artists through the 'Chong Kun Dang Arts Ground' program
Chong Kun Dang's proactive efforts in social contribution activities through sharing, including new drug development, are drawing attention. In particular, among various activities, the company has been continuously supporting culture and arts, consistently engaging in patronage activities and receiving favorable reviews.
Chong Kun Dang provides long-term and supportive assistance rather than simple one-time sponsorships for show. Through this, it is realizing sustainable management and creating values that can be shared by both society and the company.
- Traveling Cultural Project ‘Opera Hope Story’
Since 2011, Chong Kun Dang has been holding the ‘Opera Hope Story Concert’ for patients undergoing treatment and their families, as well as ‘Kids Opera’ performances for child patients. These concerts are held by visiting major hospitals nationwide. To date, 59 opera concerts and 182 kids opera performances have been conducted, striving to share culture and arts through opera.
The ‘Opera Hope Story Concert’ is a concert-style performance held in hospital lobbies. It is an informative performance that presents familiar and famous opera arias, as well as movie OSTs and musicals, accompanied by entertaining commentary. It provides an opportunity for patients undergoing treatment, their families, and visitors to experience high-quality culture and arts, delivering emotion and hope through this experience.
‘Kids Opera’ is a performance that leads children into the world of innocence. It offers a chance to enjoy familiar opera arias, well-known classical music, and original compositions with a hip-hop feel all in one place. Children can sing along with the performers and actively participate in the show. This customized performance heals the delicate emotions of children weary from long-term treatment. Recently, the target audience has expanded from children undergoing treatment to include children with disabilities and children from low-income areas who have limited access to cultural activities. This allows children from more diverse backgrounds to enjoy the performances.
A representative from Chong Kun Dang said, “We will provide more diverse cultural experience opportunities to bring bright smiles to children and plant messages of hope throughout our society.”
- Unfailing Love for Art
Chong Kun Dang’s participation in culture and arts can also be seen through the ‘Chong Kun Dang Art on the Ground’ project, which began in 2012 as part of the Korea Mecenat Association’s ‘Arts & Business (A&B)’ program. This project, in collaboration with the alternative space Art Space Hue, is the first in the pharmaceutical industry to support emerging artists. It is a secondary support program designed to help emerging artists with proven potential grow, initiated in 2012 based on the proposal of Chairman Lee Jang-han to create an environment where artists can fully concentrate on their creative work.
Although many emerging artists have been produced through numerous support programs in Korea, there has been no systematic program providing long-term and continuous support. Reflecting this reality, the project selects three flat painting artists under the age of 45 who have received support from national and public residency programs and nonprofit creative studios over the past two years, providing them with long-term support for three years.
The selected artists receive 10 million KRW annually, totaling 30 million KRW in creative support funds. In the final year of support, they are given the opportunity to hold an exhibition showcasing the works completed during their creative activities. In fact, from 2012 to 2016, the ‘Chong Kun Dang Art on the Ground’ program exhibited about 80 new works by 15 selected artists, and from 2017 to this year, it showcased the latest works of 9 selected artists in the ‘Chong Kun Dang Art on the Ground Past Selected Artists Exhibition’ held at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts Gallery.
Recognized for expanding the scope of social contribution activities for marginalized groups to the field of culture and arts, Chong Kun Dang received the ‘Cultural Arts Division Grand Prize’ at the ‘Korean Chamber of Commerce Forbes Social Contribution Awards’ in September 2012, and the ‘Creativity Award’ at the ‘2012 Korea Mecenat Awards’ in October.
- Love Message Delivered by ‘Chong Kun Dang,’ the Advocate of Community Communication
To fulfill its role as a community communication advocate, Chong Kun Dang employees regularly visit welfare facilities and marginalized groups in Seodaemun-gu, where the company’s headquarters is located; Yongin, where the research institute is; and Cheonan, where the production plant is, by taking time out of their work hours every month. All employees continuously engage in sharing love activities.
In particular, new employees taking their first steps as members of society practice neighborly love firsthand and cultivate a sense of community while raising awareness of corporate social responsibility through environmental cleanup activities, sharing briquettes of love, and volunteering at vocational rehabilitation facilities for the disabled as part of their job training program.
Since 2009, affiliated company employees have participated annually in the ‘Love Blood Donation Campaign’ and the ‘Newborn Saving Hat Knitting’ campaign for newborns in developing countries who are losing their lives due to hypothermia. They are leading efforts to provide warm compassion to local communities. They also participated in the ‘Seoul Citizens Marathon for Helping Pediatric Cancer Patients,’ which donates all proceeds to families of pediatric cancer patients facing socioeconomic difficulties. Employees actively contribute their various talents in multiple ways to sharing and giving.
It is also noteworthy that a family volunteer group composed of employees’ families was established, conducting volunteer activities once a month to foster a sense of community. This not only provides a good opportunity for proper character education for children but also receives positive responses from employees as it allows them to spend weekends or holidays meaningfully with their families.
- 46 Years of Chong Kun Dang Gochon Foundation... Gochon’s Love for Talent Delivering Hope to 8,086 People
Chong Kun Dang’s social contribution activities can also be seen through the Chong Kun Dang Gochon Foundation. Established in 1973 by the founder, the late Chairman Lee Jong-geun (Gochon), the foundation has been consistently providing scholarships, academic research, and domestic and overseas training for overseas Koreans. Over the past 46 years, it has supported 8,086 people with 43.6 billion KRW, the largest scale in the domestic pharmaceutical industry, leading the way in giving corporate profits back to society.
Since 2011, the foundation has been operating the ‘Chong Kun Dang Gochon Dormitory,’ a free dormitory aimed at solving housing problems and living difficulties for university students from rural areas. The first dormitory opened in 2011 in Donggyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul; the second in 2012 in Huigyeong-dong, Dongdaemun-gu; and the third in 2014 in Junggok-dong, Gwangjin-gu. This year, the foundation plans to expand by opening a fourth dormitory exclusively for female students.
In 2005, the foundation established the ‘Kochon Prize.’ This award honors the noble spirit of the late Chairman Lee Jong-geun (Gochon), who devoted himself to tuberculosis eradication. It is an international award jointly presented by the Chong Kun Dang Gochon Foundation, established by the late Chairman Lee Jong-geun in 1973, and the Stop TB Partnership under the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). The prize is awarded to individuals or organizations contributing to the global fight against tuberculosis and AIDS. With an annual prize of 100,000 USD, it actively participates in the worldwide effort to eradicate tuberculosis.
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