Hong Ra-hee Recognized for 34 Years of Volunteer Service... Awarded the Red Cross India Medal Gold Class

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School Also Jointly Awarded the 'Gold Medal'

Former Samsung Museum Leeum Director Hong Ra-hee and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School will jointly receive the 'Red Cross Medal of Merit Gold Medal.' This prestigious award is given to individuals and organizations who practice the humanitarian spirit of the Red Cross and contribute to the development of Red Cross projects.

Former Leeum Museum Director Hong Ra-hee (second from right) attending the 30th anniversary guide dog event held at Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School on September 19 last year. On the right is Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong.
[Photo by Samsung Electronics]

The Korean Red Cross announced on the 18th that former Director Hong and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School will receive the Red Cross Medal of Merit Gold Medal at the 119th anniversary ceremony held at COEX Auditorium in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

Since 1990, former Director Hong has practiced sharing through donations related to disaster relief and social service as a special advisory member of the Korean Red Cross Women's Volunteer Committee for 34 years.

She is also a founding member of the Korean 'Red Cross Honors Club,' a high-donor group launched by the Korean Red Cross in 2016.

For over 40 years since 1981, she has quietly performed good deeds by visiting the 'Seong (聖) Lazarus Village,' a residential area for Hansen's disease patients.

Upon hearing that Hansen's disease patients had difficulty taking their medicine, she loaded medicine and sugar onto a truck and sent them to Seong Lazarus Village.

For more than 40 years, she has delivered gifts such as sesame oil, cooking oil, ham, and fruit for a year to the residents of the village, and donated broth and rice cake chains to help them make dumplings and rice cake soup.

She also donated the 'Lee Kun-hee Collection,' left by the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, to the nation. In 2021, the family of Chairman Lee donated over 23,000 pieces of privately owned artworks to the National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School, which will receive the Red Cross Medal of Merit Gold Medal alongside former Director Hong, embodies the sharing spirit of Chairman Lee and former Director Hong.

It introduced the concept of assistance dogs for the disabled in Korea in 1993 and produced its first guide dog in 1994. To date, it has trained 300 guide dogs and donated them free of charge to visually impaired individuals. It provides 12 to 15 guide dogs annually at no cost.

Previously, former Director Hong attended the 30th anniversary ceremony of Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School held in September last year in Yongin-si, Gyeonggi Province, along with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong.