Ritz-Carlton donates to fight against Ebola

The Ritz-Carlton’ General Manager Radu Cernia, right, poses with Emmanuel Goue, executive director of Doctors Without Borders Korea, during a visit to the international non-profit organization on Dec. 5 to donate 2.6 million won to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. / Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton

By Kim Se-jeong

Employees at The Ritz-Carlton in Seoul have recently united in the global fight against the Ebola outbreak, which has so far killed more than 7,000 people in West Africa.

On Dec. 5, the hotel’s General Ganager, Radu Cernia, visited the Doctors Without Borders Seoul, a French non-profit organization, to donate 2.6 million won ($2,396) on behalf of the hotel.

“We’re delighted to be able to make the contribution. The Ritz-Carlton has been working to share what we have earned with communities. This will continue,” Cernia said.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which experts believe begun in Guinea in December last year, has killed 7,188 people as of Dec. 13, mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.

Among its victims were doctors and nurses who were taking care of patients, as well as an American national and a Spanish priest.

Doctors Without Borders is one of the organizations that have been at the forefront of the fight against the spread of the virus. Besides taking care of the patients in the latest Ebola outbreaks, it offers medical aid to people in war-torn and poverty-hit nations around the world.

Emmanuel Goue, executive director of Doctors Without Borders Korea, thanked the hotel employees for their hospitality and generosity.

“We welcome this kind of donation from the hotel staff to the fight against Ebola in West Africa, where the money will be put to good use by our medical staff to save patient lives,” Goue said.

The Ritz-Carlton Seoul has several other corporate social responsibility activities.

The longest-standing of which is the “Kimchi Project,” which is done in coordination with Kkottongnae, a village for poor disabled people located in Eumsung, North Chungcheong Province. Through the project, which began in 2008, almost 60 hotel employees visit the facility every December to make Kimchi for the disabled people for the upcoming winter.

The hotel also offers free lunch to almost 500 homeless people in Yeongdeungpo district, Seoul every March, June, September and December.

It donates used soap bars to children in India through local NGO Omkim and sends used clothes to children in Africa and Asia through local NGO Africa-Asia Destitute Relief Foundation.