Hanjin employees lend their voices to audiobooks for underserved children

Hanjin employees trained by professional voice actors recorded children's storybooks Monday to be distributed to children with limited access to reading materials. The company announced Friday that it held the volunteer session at the annex of Hanjin Building in Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, in partnership with ChildFund Korea.

The audiobooks are intended for children in difficult reading environments — including those from multicultural families, special schools for children with disabilities, single-parent and grandparent-headed households, and pediatric hospital wards — where access to books or an adult to read aloud is limited.

Funding for the project came partly from revenue generated by One-Click Delivery, Hanjin's logistics service for small business owners. The finished audio files will be delivered to children along with physical books and reading-aid devices.

Employees who signed up voluntarily first received training from a professional voice actor on vocal projection and narration techniques, then spent about three hours recording the storybooks.

A defining feature of the initiative is that employees took part directly in the production process, moving beyond the conventional model of corporate cash or in-kind donations.

The program is part of Love Connect, a corporate social responsibility campaign Hanjin has run since 2021. The company said it continues to develop programs by identifying social issues that connect to its core business.

Past activities under the campaign include a dosirak delivery service for food-insecure children in partnership with World Vision, and the distribution of packaging tape printed with information about a support system for at-risk pregnant women, produced in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Child Rights Guarantee Agency. Employees have also taken part in cleanup drives at Seoul National Cemetery.

"We hope the warm voices of our employees will serve as a milestone in bridging the information gap for children who lack access to reading and in supporting their healthy development," a Hanjin official said. "We will continue to pursue diverse sharing activities that fill the welfare blind spots in our society and sustain our commitment to ESG management."