Companies scramble to help at troubled Scout Jamboree

Korean companies are rushing to help the World Scout Jamboree event underway in North Jeolla, where the scorching heat has led to hundreds of participants falling sick and the withdrawal of several countries from the event.

Samsung Medical Center's team has been giving medical support to the World Scout Jamboree event since Saturday. [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Korean companies are rushing to help the World Scout Jamboree event underway in North Jeolla, where the scorching heat has led to hundreds of participants falling sick and the withdrawal of several countries from the event.

Samsung Electronics is dispatching about 150 new employees participating in the company’s training program to help clean the site, by picking up garbage and recycling.

“The decision has been made for the newly recruited employees to learn Samsung’s vision of ‘together’ before learning about their work,” the company said.

The Korean tech company had already dispatched an 11-member medical team on Saturday from Samsung Medical Center that included five doctors and four nurses.

“Considering that most of the Jamboree participants are teenagers, Samsung’s medical team includes pediatric specialists, including pediatric physicians, in addition to a medical treatment bus and an ambulance,” Samsung said in a release Sunday.

The medical team will stay on site until the event finishes on Aug. 12.

The tech company is also rolling out a field trip program for the participants.

Participants can visit Samsung Electronics’ chip factory in Pyeongtaek or Hwaseong, as well as Samsung Innovation Museum in Suwon, Gyeonggi where the company is headquartered. The program can accept up to 550 participants a day.

Its construction affiliate, Samsung C&T, has also offered seven portable toilets equipped with air conditioners, five sprinkler trucks and five generators to the event.

LG affiliates including LG Household & Health Care and LG Uplus have also donated 50,000 drinks and 10,000 neck coolers for the participants.

“We are actively looking into ways to help additionally so that global participants to the Jamboree can finish the event safely and in good health,” an LG spokesperson said.

GS Retail has been delivering 40,000 bottles of water to the event on a daily basis since Friday. [GS RETAIL]

GS Retail, operator of the GS25 convenience store, also said Friday that it will provide 40,000 bottles of water from Friday on a daily basis. Since Sunday, GS Retail has been providing participants with frozen water bottles, utilizing a refrigerator at a nearby branch of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives.

It has also sent 50 employees to the site to make sure that cold water is provided to those in need at the right time.

HD Hyundai, together with three of its shipbuilding affiliates, has dispatched a team of 120 volunteers to help maintain local facilities.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]