On 26th, it was announced that SK Innovation’s special video “Social distancing, but let’s keep our hearts close (ft. Elderly living alone)” was honored to receive the Korean Minister of the Interior and Safety’s Award at the “2020 Partnering Corporations Award & CSR Film Festival” (hereinafter “CSR Film Festival”).

The CSR Film Festival is an event sponsored by a number of government ministries such as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Interior and Safety. It aims to “spread the sustainable corporate business model of social value management” and “raise the awareness of corporate citizenship.”

▲ Head of SK Innovation PR Office Lim Su-kil (right) receives the Korean Minister of the Interior and Safety Award at the “2020 Partnering Corporations Award & CSR Film Festival”

The volunteer program to support the elderly living alone has been one of the major themes of SK Innovation’s CSR activities since 2016. Through the “Sharing Happiness, Carrying on Love” program, SK Innovation members become the companions with the elderly living alone, build “social families”, and carry out regular activities such as checking the safety of the elderly living alone. 

The company has been not only continuously operating programs to aid the elderly living alone but also making efforts to improve the working environment for the life supporters*. SK Innovation’s “Mind Happiness Healing Camp”, which started in 2018 as a healing program to help the life supporters relieve stress, was selected as an “Excellent Social Contribution Program for Protecting Elderly Living Alone.”

(*) Life supporter: a person who specializes in caring for the safety and life of the elderly living alone

▲(Top) SK Innovation’s member take part in elderly living alone supporting programs (photos taken in 2019) / ▲(Bottom) Life supporters participate in “Mind Happiness Healing Camp” (photos taken in 2019)

Due to COVID-19, SK Innovation changed most of its CSR programs this year into non-contact activities, including the elderly living alone support. Accordingly, the “Social distancing, but let’s keep our hearts close” is a special project to show SK Innovation’s different way of creating social values amidst the pandemic.

Since the video was first released in Korean, it has attracted more than 120,000 views on Youtube and brought tears to many viewers. Based on a real story of a senior who is living alone, the video delivered a gentle reminder to everyone about how vulnerable the elderly living alone may be during the pandemic. It is also a warm-hearted message to encourage the elderly and their life supporters to overcome this hard time together.

Let’s take a look at this special video, which has been released with the English subtitle for global viewers.

In particular, the video was recorded with the appearance of two members of SK Innovation who are engaged in volunteer program to support the elderly living alone. They shared some sincere thoughts with us about the making of this video.