三星火灾海上保险导盲犬学校举行33周年纪念活动

The Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School has marked its 33rd anniversary. Since the first guide dog, Bada, was placed with a partner in 1994, the school has provided 320 guide dogs free of charge to blind people. What began as a program to support independent mobility for people with disabilities has become a model of corporate social responsibility that reshaped how Korean society views guide dogs and people with disabilities.
Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance held the 33rd anniversary ceremony under the theme "The Steps We Took Together, the Future We Will Continue" at the guide dog school in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on the 27th. About 130 people attended, including blind partners, puppy walkers, families who adopted retired dogs, and trainers.
The school was founded in 1993, the year the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee issued his "New Management" declaration. "Although we are now criticized as idealists who do not understand reality, or as fools, after 10 or 20 years pass people will acknowledge that we were right," Lee said at the time.
When the school was established, no company anywhere had run a guide dog school, and the bylaws of the International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF) contained no criteria for such a case. The federation recognized the sincerity of Samsung's commitment and revised its bylaws, certifying the Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School as an official guide dog training organization and full member in 1999.
The school is now the only guide dog school in the world operated by a single company. "It has grown into a school that trainers from Japan and Taiwan visit to learn our training methods," an official at Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance said.
In the early years, guide dogs drew no small amount of unfamiliar stares. In 1995, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance drew on overseas precedents and international legal materials to persuade airlines to allow blind passengers to board with their guide dogs. The school has since consistently proposed legal revisions to guarantee guide dogs access to public transportation and public places.
The legal framework was overhauled step by step. In 1999, provisions on assistance dogs for people with disabilities were written into the Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities for the first time, and in 2012 the guarantee of access rights was extended to guide dogs in training, volunteers and trainers. In April 2025, the "legitimate grounds" for restricting access by assistance dogs were specified as sterile rooms and operating rooms, kitchens and food storage facilities.
Pairing a single guide dog with a partner takes about two years of training and the hands of many people. The process involves puppy walkers, who handle socialization for about a year starting when the dog is around two months old, professional trainers, and home care families who support partner training and care for the dogs after retirement. Volunteer households that have taken part in the guide dog program number about 2,930 in total.
After puppy walking, dogs undergo comprehensive evaluation including health checkups and temperament assessments before entering six to eight months of professional training. About 35% pass the training and become guide dogs. Dogs are matched with partners based on the dog's temperament together with the partner's occupation, walking pace and living environment, followed by three weeks of joint training.
At the ceremony, seven new guide dogs set out with their blind partners. Four retired dogs that had completed roughly seven to eight years of service were adopted by home care volunteer families and began new lives as companion animals. Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance operates a system that supports guide dogs throughout their entire lives, from birth through active service and into retirement.
A plaque of appreciation was also presented to trainer Lee Sung-jin, who is set to retire. Lee joined the school in 2001 and spent about 25 years training guide dogs and educating blind partners. Qualifying as a guide dog trainer requires raising six guide dogs and completing training for six blind partners. The school currently employs eight trainers.
Over the past 33 years, trainers at the school have walked about 890,000 kilometers while raising guide dogs in training. That figure reflects an average of six trainers walking about four hours a day, 250 days a year, and amounts to more than 22 laps around the Earth's circumference.
"The guide dog program is not simply a social contribution activity but work that shares the lives of blind people and changes our society for the better," said Lee Moon-hwa, president of Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance. "We will continue to carry forward the value of walking together, which has been sustained by the interest and dedication of everyone in our society."