Support with home furnishing solutions and products
Home furnishing retailer IKEA Korea is supporting improvements to the living environments at children's shelters in order to provide safer and more comfortable spaces for children who have suffered abuse or are in need of protection.
IKEA Korea's "Children's Shelter Living Environment Improvement Project" was launched to help children—our future—find peace of mind and body and grow up healthily in better environments, as the number of children living in group residential facilities has risen since COVID-19 due to abuse, poverty, the absence of guardians, and other factors.
To this end, IKEA Korea signed a business agreement for the shelter living environment improvement project with Save the Children, an international NGO for children's rights, and donated 265 million won, providing home furnishing solutions and products to improve the spaces of a total of 50 children's shelters. So that children living in facilities such as shelters for abused children and group homes for women, children, and youth can spend their time in more pleasant surroundings, the plan is to replace aging furniture in learning spaces, psychological treatment spaces, rest areas, and more.
IKEA Korea has been making various efforts to help children grow up happily. Since 2017, it has run the "Mom-Up Project" together with the Korea Foundation for Women to support the emotional and social independence of single mothers raising children and to create a healthy, sustainable child-rearing environment. Since 2018, to provide children with opportunities for growth and development through play, it has sponsored Save the Children's "Protect the Playground" campaign to guarantee the right to play and has worked to improve play spaces.
Fredrik Johansson, President of IKEA Korea, said, "Through this project, we hope that children who have been going through difficult times since COVID-19 can recover their daily lives and grow in a space they can comfortably call home," adding, "IKEA will continue to actively support healthy and sustainable life at home for many people and strive to spread a positive influence throughout local communities."
▲ The Dodam Treatment Group Home in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, before (left) and after (right) being transformed through IKEA Korea's "Children's Shelter Living Environment Improvement Project."