Pony Chung Foundation (President: Chul Soo Kim) nominated Father Ha Jong Kim, president of the social welfare corporation Anna House, as the winner of the 12th Pony Chung Innovation Award. The award ceremony was held at 5:00 pm on May 15th at Pony Chung Hall in IPark Tower, Samseong-dong, Seoul, Korea.
A total of about 100 attendees were present, including Father Ha Jong Kim, the award winner; Chul Soo Kim, President of Pony Chung Foundation; Mong Gyu Chung, Chairman of HDC and founder of Pony Chung Foundation; and staff members of the social welfare corporation Anna House.
Chul Soo Kim, President of Pony Chung Foundation, explained the nomination and offered his congratulations to Father Kim as follows: “Father Kim, who was born in Italy, came to Korea in 1990 and founded Anna House in 1998. Anna House is a soup kitchen that provides free meals for homeless people, and Father Kim has devoted himself to helping our alienated neighbors including the homeless and runaway adolescents. Thanks to the warmth he has delivered, the beauty of sharing has been spread throughout society.”
In his acceptance speech, Father Kim gave his thoughts as follows: “Continuance of Anna House is thanks to the beautiful dreams of the tens of thousands of people who have helped us, including sponsors and volunteers. The efforts of volunteers to create a warmer society are certainly a new hope for everyone.”
Father Ha Jong Kim (Italian name: Vincenzo Bordo), president of the social welfare corporation Anna House, was born in Piansano, Italy. He was impressed by the history and culture of Roman Catholicism in Korea, where Roman Catholics independently increased their number, and came to Korea in 1990. He started his life of sharing in the shanty towns of Seongnam as a priest for the poor. Then, as the number of homeless people surged in the wake of the economic crisis in 1998, he founded Anna House, Korea’s first indoor evening soup kitchen. Anna House, with the motto “practicing universal love for the underprivileged,” provides warm meals for more than 500 needy neighbors a day. Also, it provides homeless people with full support to re-enter society by providing legal and employment counseling, free medical care, liberal arts courses and workshops. In 2015, Father Kim started running “Agit” (a safeguard bus for children and juveniles), a mobile counseling bus for juveniles and a mobile soup kitchen, to provide help for the ever-increasing number of runaway adolescents. He is also endeavoring to provide education and protection for runaway adolescents by establishing short-term, mid- to long-term shelters and self-reliance centers, etc.
The Pony Chung Innovation Award was named after Pony Chung, the nickname of the late Se Yung Chung, founder of Hyundai Motors who was also the Honorary Chairman of Hyundai Development Company. The award is given to individuals or organizations that have contributed to creating a positive change in our society through innovative thinking. The 1st Pony Chung Innovation Award winner was Ki Moon Ban, who was then the UN Secretary General. Then, the award was given to Nam Pyo Suh (President of KAIST), the World Canaan Farmers’ Movement, In Pyo Cha and Ae-ra Shin, Professor Ha-Joon Chang (Cambridge University), Bum-Soo Kim (Chairman of the Board of Directors, Kakao), Tenured Professor Jeannie Chi Yong Suk (Harvard Law School), Yuna Kim (figure skater), Giorgetto Giugiaro (car designer), Seong-Jin Cho (pianist), and Guk-Jong Lee (Head of Ajou University Hospital’s Trauma Center in Gyeonggi).