LG Group has rolled up its sleeves to help develop Ethiopia.
LG said Monday that it successfully dug a joint well in Guta village in Sendafa Woreda, Ethiopia, on April 16, the first part of its project to turn its underdeveloped villages into self-supported farming centers.
Guta is populated by about 760 people in 138 households, and is hardly sustainable without outside support due to its lack of electricity and running water.
LG will build on momentum from the well construction to build more infrastructure, create demonstration farms and educate village leaders, with the goal of increasing every household’s income by 50 percent by 2015 as well as increasing autonomy.
Student volunteers of Cheonan Yonam College, which is run by the LG Yonam Educational Foundation, will join the project by educating Ethiopians on how to raise specialized crops and cattle. LG will also supply electricity to remote villages using its solar panels.
LG plans to expand the project to about 75,000 residents within three years.
Early this year, LG Electronics, one of the group’s flagship subsidiaries, established a branch office in Ethiopia for its social contribution programs there.
LG will build “LG Hope Vocational School” jointly with the Korea International Cooperation Agency, the government-backed overseas aid agency, in the African state in September this year to train about 100 young people for two years on repairing electronics products.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
