Dramabeans » good deeds

Han Ji-min signs her donation book

javabeans — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:57:25 +0000

Actress Han Ji-min (Cain & Abel) has put out a book titled We’re Already Friends — Han Ji-min’s Philippines Donation Book, which includes stories of her time spent in a deep mountain village in the Philippines helping at a village school. (The book also contains drawings, which Han drew herself.)

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Post tags: books, good deeds, Han Ji-min

Kim Myung-min sets up campaign for sufferers of ALS

javabeans — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:36:25 +0000

As you may know, Kim Myung-min plays a man suffering from ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, in his latest film, My Love By My Side [내 사랑 내 곁에].

Kim Myung-min is now acting to raise awareness of the illness, and the Naver portal site has set up a corner promoting the “Kim Myung-min’s Happy Energy” campaign. (Happy Energy has a few campaigns in progress featuring celebrities who promote a certain cause.) The campaign allows people to make donations to an organization helping Lou Gehrig’s patients, and in less than a week of its opening, it has raised over 10 million won. (The 10 million figure was as of September 3; the donation number currently stands at 17 million won.)

One campaign administrator said, “We haven’t exposed the campaign through advertising yet, but to have raised 10 million won already in this short time is a shock we’re grateful for. I think Kim Myung-min’s heartfelt performance and his image have made a deep impression on netizens.”

Lou Gehrig’s disease is an illness that attacks the body’s motor cells, leaving intellect and consciousness intact while rendering the muscles paralyzed. As the disease progresses, even the vital organs become paralyzed, which makes eating impossible and requires feeding tubes. After immersing himself in his latest role, Kim Myung-min said, “There is still no cure, and it’s a disease in urgent need of society’s awareness. I hope that with the film, many people will take a warm interest in the patients suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.”

The movie My Love By My Side opens September 24.

Via OSEN, Happy Energy

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Yoo Ji-tae sets up a kindergarten

javabeans — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:37:14 +0000

Actor (and director) Yoo Ji-tae is opening up a kindergarten in Nepal.

Last April, Yoo had participated with members of his online gallery at the popular internet community DC Inside to raise money to help the needy; those funds will provide the basis for setting up the school. A rep from Yoo’s side said, “He’s been preparing to go to Nepal for a long time. He will travel in October with fans who contributed to donations for the groundbreaking ceremony and plans to participate in various volunteer activities before returning.”

Yoo Ji-tae was last seen acting in the melodrama A Star’s Lover, which ended a few months ago. He is currently gearing up for the release of his fourth directorial effort, the short film Invitation (releases on June 9), which will screen in the competitive category at the 6th Short Shorts Film Festival. He’ll fly to Japan next month for the festival, and is also working on his next movie role in Bimilae with Return of Iljimae actress Yoon Jin-seo.

Phew. No rest for the weary, eh?

Via Sports Seoul

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Jung Hye-young donates her paycheck

javabeans — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:23:02 +0000

Jung Hye-young, who played Iljimae’s mother in the just-ended Return of Iljimae, is blessed with a ridiculously adorable family and a doting husband (Sean of old-school kpop duo Jinusean). She was also pregnant while filming the drama with their third child.

The couple has revealed (through a mini-homepage posting — who needs publicists when you have the internet?) that she will be donating part of her Return of Iljimae paycheck to charity in the name of her unborn baby, Ha-yul (Jung is due in June).

Sean wrote, “Hye-young said that she wanted to share her proceeds from the work she did filming with our unborn Ha-yul. She felt particularly sympathetic with children in difficult situations because, as a result of filming for Return of Iljimae, she had to spend time apart from the children.” He added, “As my wife and baby Ha-yul wrap up with Return of Iljimae, we also wanted to show our love in a small way. We give part of her paycheck in Ha-yul’s name to the Social Welfare Society along with our love.”

Via My Daily

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Happy endings: An adoption story

javabeans — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:22:31 +0000

Adoptee Soo-hoon (Sonny) with actor Lee Wan

Mea culpa.

I admit I’ve looked upon celebrity involvement in charity promotion and public campaigns with a skeptical eye, as I did in the original post featuring Lee Wan, above, who participated (along with Kim Rae-won and Lee Junki) in a campaign to raise awareness for the adoption of disabled children.

Well, I got an email this morning informing me that Soo-hoon, aka Sonny, pictured above with Lee Wan, was recently adopted into a loving family last month. The 13-year-old Sonny has Down Syndrome and grew up under the care of Holt International, and is now a happy resident in Iowa. Jake Krob, Sonny’s proud adoptive father, wrote up his adoption experience for an Iowa paper, which gives a moving account of the way Sonny came to be a member of the family. (If you don’t tear up, you can’t have a heart!)

When we’re talking stars who promote charitable organizations, you’ll inevitably get a segment of people scoffing that it’s all for self-promotion and image-conscious career calculation — like netizens backlashing against “donation angel” Moon Geun-young, or criticizing Choi Kang-hee’s bone marrow donation as a PR stunt. But you know what? If a raised profile — no matter the motive — in any way helps to complete a happy family as in Sonny’s case, well, the rest of the bad stuff just falls away.

So, yes: snark reflex has been duly checked and noted.

Also: Anyone have a shortcut to Lee Wan’s management or PR team? I was able to pass along the general contact info for his management company (Logos Film), but if anyone’s got a better way to get in touch, please let me (and Jake) know!

Via Mt. Vernon Lisbon Sun

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Donation angel Moon Geun-young strikes again

javabeans — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:58:32 +0000

“Teacher Moon Geun-young”

Painter of the Wind actress and “Korea’s Little Sister” Moon Geun-young has once again donated money (100 million won), this time toward a library serving the Korean community in Sydney, Australia.

The Han Geul Library provides Korean-language books for Korean children, and Moon has been involved in personally sending the library books for the past four years, but the news is just coming to light now.

She sent so many books over the years that the library actually ran out of room in the small private garage from which it had been operating. Hearing this, Moon got in contact with her uncle, who lives in Sydney, and last November a building was constructed using her 100 million won donation.

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Jang Nara converts paydays into charitable donations

javabeans — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:43:25 +0000

Jang Nara is turning a few paydays into charity opportunities, sending a total of 200 million’s worth ($156,000) of items to help the needy.

Recently, Jang signed a contract to promote a children’s/junior’s clothing brand, Our Q, which is a deal worth about 100 million won. Instead of cash payment, however, her fee is being delivered as 100 million won’s worth of clothing, which will be split between two charities. That means 50 million won’s worth will go to clothe underprivileged Korean children via the Korea Food for the Hungry International, while another 50 million in clothes will be sent to a Chinese charity to help earthquake victims in Sichuan.

Furthermore, she’s also entered into a contract with a Chinese cosmetics line worth 100 million won; again, her payment will be converted into that much worth of toothpaste, hand cream, and other items to be sent to North Korea. It’s a creative way to negotiate her contracts, that’s for sure (and I’m sure the companies prefer sending their own merchandise as payment rather than cold, hard cash anyway). Wins all around.

Via Hankook Ilbo

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