Hanwha Construction Co., Ltd. Creates Library at the Only Elementary School on Yeonpyeongdo Island

Hanwha Corporation's Construction Division and Korea Midland Power Co., Ltd. announced on the 20th that they have established the ‘Forena·Ecossekomi Library’ at the only elementary school on Yeonpyeong Island.

On the 19th, Hanwha Corporation's Construction Division and Korea Midland Power held the opening ceremony of the Forena·Ecossekomi Library at Yeonpyeong Elementary School in Yeonpyeong, Ongjin-gun, Incheon Metropolitan City. The ceremony was attended by Cho Heegun, Yeonpyeong-myeon Chief, Han Sungwook, Vice Principal of Yeonpyeong Elementary School, volunteers and employees from Hanwha Corporation and Korea Midland Power, students, and local residents, celebrating the birth of the new library.

Yeonpyeong Elementary School, where the Forena·Ecossekomi Library was established, is located on Yeonpyeong Island, about a 2-hour ferry ride from Incheon Port, and is a small elementary school with 43 students in total. The elementary, middle, and high schools, along with an attached kindergarten, are all located together, and until now, there was only one library on campus, so kindergarteners and elementary students used the library together with middle and high school students. For this reason, younger students’ use of the library was low, and a library for children had been postponed due to budget and other issues.

Hanwha Corporation's Construction Division, which has been steadily establishing libraries in social welfare facilities nationwide for the past 13 years, heard this news and, together with Korea Midland Power, embarked on establishing the 103rd Forena Library. Since island areas lack cultural spaces compared to inland areas, they agreed to create a space where children can comfortably read books suited to their level.

Hanwha Corporation's Construction Division utilized its expertise in construction to remodel the interior based on its experience of establishing 102 libraries. They renovated an empty classroom on the third floor of the elementary school building into a clean and cozy library equipped with reading spaces and small meeting rooms. Employees participated together in interior construction, assembling built-in bookshelves, arranging desks and chairs, and placing books, sharing their talents. The library’s name uses Hanwha Corporation Construction Division’s residential brand ‘Forena’ and Korea Midland Power’s characters ‘Ekomi·Sekomi’.

The Forena Library establishment activities are popular among Hanwha Corporation Construction Division employees as volunteer work where they can share their talents as construction engineers and participate together. They feel great fulfillment when seeing the completed library and develop pride in their profession as construction workers.

Han Sungwook, Vice Principal of Yeonpyeong Elementary School, said, “We have been continuously striving to establish a library, and we are grateful that Hanwha and Korea Midland Power have fulfilled this long-cherished wish. We will nurture it as a small library where young children can enjoy and comfortably use it.”

Jang Hyuk, Manager at Hanwha Corporation, said, “We hope the Forena Library will warmly embrace the children like the warm spring breeze on Yeonpyeong Island. Based on Hanwha Group’s management philosophy of ‘Together, Far,’ we want to continue a good relationship with Yeonpyeong Island.”

Meanwhile, the Forena Library establishment project, a representative social contribution activity of Hanwha Corporation’s Construction Division, is a project that creates libraries by utilizing idle spaces in social welfare facilities such as facilities for the disabled. Since 2011, Hanwha Corporation’s Construction Division has been continuously working with the Seoul Association of Welfare Facilities for the Disabled. The total time employees have participated in library establishment exceeds 5,000 hours, and the number of donated books reaches tens of thousands. In addition, they continuously conduct book donation campaigns in which employees and the public participate together.

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