Opening of soup kitchen in Jinyeong, Gimhae /

Party for village elders every May 3rd/

Establishment of Jinyeong Scholarship foundation

“Try donating small amounts of money. The kind heart will bring everyone good.”

Last December 24th, day of Christmas Eve, a soup Kitchen opened its doors in Jinyeong town(Yeorae-ri 969-1), Gimhae city. It was established by the Good Development group for children of low income households and senior citizens in need.

Today, 70 people visited the soup kitchen and enjoyed a warm meal. The soup kitchen is open during lunch hours in the week.

CEO Dongjin Park (46) of Good Development Group, said “There are actually many children that are starving when school is in vacation.”

He claimed that it was the same for North Korean defectors and elders living alone and added that he wanted to make sure that everyone had a good meal and did not have an empty stomach.

CEO Park was born in Jinyoung, Gimhae City. He was born into a poor family. Although he entered the Department of Law of Korea National Open University, he had to give up his education in his sophomore year since he did not have money to pay the tuition of $300. From then on, he started working in real estate brokerage. He never stopped and thanks to his past background in law, he was able to grow quicker.

In 2003, he opened a real estate office in Samgyedong, Gimhae City. He managed five franchises the next year. In 2006, he established his own company and started to work as an agent for selling shopping centers. Although he went through difficult times due to the financial crisis in 2008, it served as the strong basis for his future success. He has been building large shopping malls and buildings in Jangyu Gimhae, Jinyeong, Yangsan, Ulsan, Busan, Suwon, and Gimpo.
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Despite being busy with business, he continued his education. He graduated the department of business and commerce at Inje University and finished his master’s course at Konkuk Univeristy Graduate School of Real Estate studies. He had an unexpected opportunity to run for the office to become a member of the provincial assembly. He realized that there were many people in need in the community while taking on his election campaign.

He pledged to work for the local community. It was not long after that he felt that something was wrong. He realized that it may have been a lot better if he used the money that he spent on his election campaign for the people in need. Thus, he took his thoughts to action, which let him feel great pride.

His good deeds continued from then on. In 2016, he donated $25,000 to Jinyeong Geumbyeong Elementary School and also donated $5000 worth scholarship to the Haneol Middle school. He also provided new houses to elders living in aged houses. He has also hosted a party for the village elders every May 3rd from 2018. Last year, he has also established the Jinyeong Scholarship foundation and became the center of attention when he donated $85,000 for scholarships.

CEO Park claims that he has encountered many unexpected events as he started his good deeds. He said, “ I simply started out with good intentions, but this has become great advertisement. Many people learned about how financially stable our company is through our good deeds. Our business is doing well and the size of our donations has become larger. Our business and donations have expanded at the same time. We have donated approximately 1.5 million dollars till now. We are aiming to donate 1 billion dollars within the next decade. I would like to help outstanding students that are in difficult circumstances. I am looking forward to the virtuous circle of good deeds where these students that have received my help will grow up to help other students that are also in need.”
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