SK Gifts 'Smiles' to 4,273 Vietnamese Children... Free Surgery for Children with Facial Deformities

SK's Leading Global Social Contribution Activities Since 1996
Twice Awarded Vietnam's Highest Honor

: Professor Baek Rong-min of the Department of Plastic Surgery at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, who participated in SK's 'Free Surgery for Vietnamese Children with Facial Deformities' event, is examining a Vietnamese child. Photo by SK

SK brought smiles to children with facial deformities in Vietnam.

SK announced on the 26th that from the 18th to the 23rd, it held a ‘Free Surgery for Children with Facial Deformities in Vietnam’ event in the Quang Ngai region of Vietnam, in collaboration with Bundang Seoul National University Hospital and the domestic medical volunteer organization Semin Face Deformity Support Association (Seminhoe).

This event has been carried out annually in Vietnam under the slogan ‘Smile for Children’ by SK Group since 1996. Since 2017, SK Ecoplant has taken the lead in organizing and operating the program, establishing it as a representative global social contribution activity of SK.

Over the past 27 years, SK has restored new faces and smiles to a total of 4,273 children and has fully supported the surgery costs amounting to 4 billion KRW up to this year.

Most children with facial deformities are patients with cleft lip and palate, which not only causes food to reflux into the nose or affects the respiratory system, leading to delayed physical development, but also hinders social growth such as speech, appearance, and confidence, making early surgery extremely important.

Participants of the SK university student volunteer group "SK Sunny," who took part in the "Free Surgery for Vietnamese Children with Facial Deformities" event, are engaging in volunteer activities to comfort the children who underwent surgery and their families. Photo by SK

The ‘Free Surgery for Children with Facial Deformities in Vietnam’ project has been conducted annually across various regions in Vietnam to provide more children with access to medical benefits. So far, it has visited a total of 17 regions and is recognized as a model case of overseas social contribution activities in terms of sincerity and sustainability.

In particular, this project not only brings happiness to children and their families through facial deformity surgeries but also holds great significance in enhancing medical cooperation between the two countries by having Korean medical staff perform surgeries together with Vietnamese local medical staff, transferring medical technology, and donating surgical instruments and equipment used.

Korean medical staff transfer their know-how and infrastructure every year, helping local Vietnamese hospitals to acquire the skills and conditions necessary to independently perform secondary and tertiary treatments as well as facial deformity surgeries, rather than being a one-time event.

In recognition of these contributions, SK received the ‘Order of Friendship of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,’ the highest honor given to foreigners by the Vietnamese government, in 2009, and Baek Rong-min, chairman of Seminhoe, received the same award in 2016.

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