Elderly repair toys for children

Toy repair shop Kinis Toy Clinic Chairman Kim Jong-il introduces toys to be donated to multicultural families at the shop in Incheon, west of Seoul, Dec. 13. / Yonhap.

By Jhoo Dong-chan

Six senior citizens have been repairing toys for children free for four years since their retirement.

Kim Jong-il, 69, Kim Ki-seong, 69, Ha Young-sun, 69, Kim Young-bong, 69, Kim Kyeong-rae, 69, and Park Jong-tae, 66, opened a toy repair shop named “Kinis Toy Clinic” for children in Incheon, west of Seoul, in 2011.

Three of the friends are retired engineering professors and Kim Young-bong was a high school principal. Park Jong-tae is retired from a major electronics manufacture company.

“We decided to start our repair operation to help children and their parents who are saddened by broken toys,” said chairman Kim Jong-il.

“Small-sized domestic toy makers rarely offer repair services. So I and my friends thought about what we could do for children with our expertise.”

Kinis Toy Clinic initially opened as a social enterprise in 2011 but was soon transformed into a nonprofit private organization to better serve its purpose as a service to children.

Members of the toy clinic repair a dozen broken toys a day while some 2,000 broken toys have been taken there every year to be repaired.

The men say that although not every broken toy can be repaired, they always do their best to bring all the toys back to life, understanding that parents cannot afford to buy toys as often as their children might want.

Because of their efforts, Kinis Toy Clinic’s webpage (https://cafe.naver.com/toyclinic) is always full of posts from parents expressing their gratitude. Typical messages are something like, “Our child is happy to have his broken toy back alive,” and “Thank you for repairing our boy’s best friend.”

As the toy repair shop has become famous, more older people have volunteered to work with them.

“We give the volunteers 60 hours of training in repairing toys,” said chairman Kim.

“Repairing toys is helpful in preventing dementia for older people and is a good bridge for their career after retirement.”

The founding members of Kinis Toy Clinic said they want to establish several branches nationwide to make more children happy.

Kinis Toy Clinic also has a toy donation event for multicultural families with some 1,000 toys provided by the Incheon Nam-gu District Office, Thursday.