The Volunteer Center of Ewha held a series of events under the broad theme Beautiful World with Ewha throughout November. There were four types of events: inviting multicultural family members to visit Ewha, an event that allowed students to temporarily experience life with a disability, special lectures by invited guests with experience in volunteering, and a blood donation drive.

  The main events of the festival change annually. "Inviting multicultural families was organized for the first time this year to help Ewha students understand our new neighbors. Another event was organized to provide students a chance to experience disabilities in person," said a staff of the Volunteer Center.

 

  Multicultural families refer to families made up through international marriages and foreign migrant workers' families. "I have heard of multicultural families a lot before, but I never had chance to meet them. So, I wanted to meet them in person," said Joh Hee-young (Economics, 4).

 

  The families took part in a full-day-activity, which was divided into two sections. In the morning, the center held a craft workshop using hanji (traditional Korean paper). The children made picture frames and the parents made jewelry boxes. In the afternoon, at the Sports Strip, the families enjoyed traditional Korean activities, from playing Korean traditional instruments to doing julneomgi (Korean traditional rope jumping). There were also other programs for young participants, such as science experiments and face painting.

 

  About 200 children participated. Shijire, a child from Mongolian family, was inspired by friendly Ewha students. Her image of Korean people had been 'Unfriendly' before. However, Shijire said, "I met a friendly volunteer who helped me through the day. It gave me a good impression of Korean people." The student volunteer for the festival created and prepared for the events held at the Sports Strip. "We made a cyber club and shared ideas about the events online," said Yoon Hee-jin (Education Technology, 1).

 

  A student commented on her busy but meaningful day. "Nowadays many students are so busy preparing for the job market that they do not have time to volunteer. However, there are many things that you can learn from volunteering. It is very important to understand people who are different. Volunteering will help understand others," said Kim Moon-jung (Science Education, 3).

 

by Ko Eun-hye

picgirl@ewhain.net

 

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