Woori Financial "300 Billion KRW Investment Over 10 Years, Creating 1,500 Jobs for People with Disabilities"

Milal Welfare Foundation Supports Establishment of 100 'Goodwill Store' Locations
Focusing on Four Areas: People with Developmental Disabilities, Small Business Owners, Future Generations, and Multicultural Families
Woori Financial Group Plans to Intensively Foster Its Representative Social Contribution Project

Woori Financial Group has decided to invest 30 billion KRW over the next 10 years to create 1,500 jobs for people with developmental disabilities. On the 20th, Woori Financial and the Woori Financial Future Foundation announced that they signed a business agreement on the 12th with the Milal Welfare Foundation regarding the "Project to Build an Independent Ecosystem for People with Disabilities."

The project to build an independent ecosystem for people with disabilities by the two organizations will be carried out through the "Goodwill Store," a workplace for people with disabilities operated by the Milal Welfare Foundation. The Woori Financial Future Foundation plans to expand the number of Goodwill Store branches from the current 26 to 100 by 2033. The number of full-time employees with developmental disabilities employed at Goodwill Stores will increase from 360 to 1,500 during the same period.

The Woori Financial Future Foundation will support 30 billion KRW over 10 years for the establishment of Goodwill Stores, provide the bank’s headquarters and idle facilities, while the Milal Welfare Foundation will be responsible for operating the Goodwill Stores and employing staff with developmental disabilities.

This is one of the representative social contribution projects selected by Woori Financial. Woori Financial plans to focus on nurturing four signature projects in the areas of ▲people with developmental disabilities (Goodwill Store), ▲small business owners (Our Neighborhood Good Store), ▲future generations (Our Rookie Project), and ▲multicultural families (Our Nuri Project).

Through the small business win-win project "Our Neighborhood Good Store," financial support such as free management consulting, Woori Card payment discounts, and preferential interest rates on loans and deposits will be provided to 300 small business sites nationwide. They also plan to help improve the business environment through donation support, interior and exterior renovations of stores, and promotional partnerships with Naver.

Under the motto of "nurturing future generations," the "Our Rookie Project" will also be promoted to support surgeries for children with disabilities. Each year, 100 children with visual and hearing impairments will be selected to receive support for eye surgeries (about 300 million KRW) and cochlear implant surgeries and speech rehabilitation (about 700 million KRW). Rehabilitation treatment, emotional stability before and after surgery, and psychological therapy will also be supported.

In the multicultural family sector, the "Our Nuri Project" was selected to improve public awareness and support social adaptation for multicultural families. Notably, the scholarship support target, currently 600 people, will be expanded to 800 from next year, and exchanges and career exploration support among scholarship students, which were piloted for 100 people this year, will increase to 500 next year. Since 2012, Woori Financial has provided scholarships totaling 6.5 billion KRW to 5,869 multicultural family students from elementary to university over 11 years. In addition, educational programs such as bilingual skill enhancement and talent development, as well as welfare projects including care for unregistered migrant children and children of mid-term immigrants, will be carried out.

Im Jong-ryong, Chairman of Woori Financial, said, "All 27,000 members of the 16 group companies of Woori Financial Group will sincerely rush to places where help is needed and take the lead in warming our society."

Jang Gwang-ik, Vice President of the Brand Division at Woori Financial Group, is holding a social contribution project presentation at the Woori Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 20th. Photo by Kwon Hyun-ji