Donations Flood In for Ferry Disaster Victims

People across Korea are sharing the grief of the families of the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster.

The Korea Disabled Veterans Organization has given W30 million (US$1=W1,041) to help the families of the victims. It carried out a fundraising campaign at 250 branches nationwide immediately after the ferry sank. The donation was delivered to the Korea Disaster Relief Association on Wednesday.

The relief association has been conducting its own campaign in cooperation with portal site Naver since April 17. As of 10 p.m. on Wednesday, over 93,200 people had made contributions worth W320 million in total.

The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business also pledged W1 billion when officials visited a memorial altar set up for the victims in Ansan. Gyeonggi Province on Wednesday.

"We wanted to express our condolences and offer assistance to the victims as we are very aware that many of the students in Danwon High School are children of executives and employees in small or medium-sized businesses in the industrial complex in or near Ansan," the federation said.

TV personality Park Kyung-rym donated W10 million and actress Park Shin-hye W50 million.