KT&G strengthens its corporate social responsibility activities through “Sangsang Village”, a program to improve housing conditions of lower-income households.

KT&G is initiating its program designed to improve the housing conditions and support the economic independence of the underprivileged people overseas.

“Sangsang Village Program” is KT&G’s first global CSR project aiming to improve the living conditions of the lower income people overseas and to help their economic self-support. The first program will take place in Surabaya, Indonesia. For twelve months, 640 million won in total will be spent to renovate 40 houses, build shared bathrooms, and repair sewage systems to improve the overall living conditions of the region. Education on personal hygiene and finance will also be given to the impoverished residents so that they could support themselves.

At “Sangsang Village – building homes of hope”, the first major volunteer activity program in which 50 students and employees will participate since today until Feb 15, local homes will be reformed so that the impoverished people can reside at cordial homes. Besides, ragged walls will be freshly painted, and cultural shows such as “Arirang Performance”, K-Pop, and “Nanta” will be offered in order to promote cultural exchange.

For the last ten years, KT&G has been keen in its corporate social contribution activities abroad. It has provided medical service to foreign countries such as Uzbekistan and Indonesia, and on 30 occasions, has dispatched about 900 volunteer students and employees to Cambodia, which suffered a long period of civil war.

Hyo-suk Jee, the head of KT&G’s CSR division, said that every year KT&G is bringing back to the society more than 2% of its annual sales, a rate that is more than 10 times greater than that of Korea’s 100 major companies. As a global company operating in more than 50 countries, KT&G will continue to be enthusiastic about its social contribution toward the underprivileged people in the global community.