Amorepacific Opens Public Recruitment for Single Mother 'Hope Store' Founders

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Amorepacific announced on the 4th that it will publicly recruit founders for the single-parent women entrepreneurship loan support project "Hope Store," in collaboration with the Beautiful Foundation, until the 6th of next month.

Hope Store is a microcredit project that supports economic independence by helping single-parent women who dream of becoming female entrepreneurs. It was started in 2003 by the family of the founder, Chairman Seoh Seong-hwan, to honor the founder's commitment to supporting women and child welfare. Since the opening of the first store in 2004, a total of 402 stores have been established nationwide to date.

Selected Hope Store founders through the recruitment will be provided with startup funds up to 40 million KRW, including a deposit, at an annual repayment interest rate of 1%. The repayment funds are accumulated as startup support funds to help the independence of other female heads of households, and the repayment period is 8 years.

Any single-parent woman raising a child aged 25 or younger based on the eldest child, with a concrete startup plan, is eligible to apply. No separate collateral or guarantee is required at the time of application, and credit rating is not considered.

Final selected founders will receive customized consulting from industry experts, various educational programs, and up to 2 million KRW for personal skill training expenses. Psychological and emotional support, legal support, and emergency medical expenses are also available.

This year's Hope Store recruitment will be conducted two more times after this first round. Detailed application guidelines and forms can be found on the Hope Store blog, and applications can be submitted by mail or in person during the application period.

Kim Yeon-an, Director of the Change Project at the Beautiful Foundation, said, "Most single-parent women have high loan demand but are financially marginalized due to low credit ratings or ongoing rehabilitation/bankruptcy applications, making it difficult to access financial institution loans. We hope Hope Store can help their economic independence even a little."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.