Girl group NewJeans donated 200 million won ($154,000) to the United Nations World Food Programme on Friday to help support those affected by the earthquake in Turkey and northern Syria, according to the agency ADOR the same day.
“We have decided to add our support with the hope and desire that [our donation] can at least be a help and consolation to the people in Turkey and northern Syria who have been affected by the earthquake,” NewJeans and ADOR said in a statement. ADOR is an independent music label under HYBE.
Producer Bang Si-hyuk, the founder of HYBE, also donated 200 million won to the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Save the Children on Friday.
That brought the total donation sum from HYBE and its artists to 1.1 billion won, with members of boy band BTS, J-Hope and Jimin, each donating 100 million won to Unicef, and HYBE itself donating 500 million won earlier this week.
Separately, Minnie from girl group (G)I-DLE donated 20 million won to the Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association on Friday, whereas Soyeon from the same group also donated the same amount of money on Feb. 14.
Boy band Stray Kids’ Felix also pitched in 50 million won to the NGO World Vision.
BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]
