The purpose of Seoul Foreign Student Volunteers is to provide academic and psychological support to multicultural children for successful adjustment to the Korean society and to create an environment that embraces everyone regardless of nationalities.
Volunteers were limitedly recruited in numbers to carry out specialized volunteering activities more than once a month until the end of the year.
The members elected their coordinators, including a president, vice-president and promotion department and organized themselves into four groups, each cooperating with four children care centers in Seoul: Jung-dong Center in Seongdong-Gu, Saemmul Center in Gwanak-Gu, East Small Gate Happy Home School Center in Seongbuk-Gu and Seoul Center in Dongdaemun-Gu.
The first group visited the Jung-dong Center and supervised the children on July 31 as their first activity. The second group visited Seoul National Science Museum with 20 elementary school students in Saemmul Center on Aug. 18 and plans to carry out various outdoor activities, including visiting national museums and parks. The third group gave a lesson on traditional culture of Vietnam and Bangladesh in English on Aug. 20 in collaboration with East Small Gate Happy Home School Center and will continue to give lessons on various topics in English. The last group introduced the volunteers’ home countries including China and Japan on Aug. 25 under the theme of “Traveling around the World.”
“As I always wanted to participate in volunteering activities, the program offered by SMG was a great opportunity for me,” said Baatarnyam Anujin (Yonsei Graduate School), the president of Seoul Foreign Student Volunteers. “The program was very special for me since I have never done any activities carried out by foreign students only. Through taking part in volunteering activities as a foreign student in Korea, I could feel a sense of belonging to the Korean society.”
Those four groups not only work separately in coordination with four different children centers, but also collaborate to provide bigger help to children center. They visited Dongja Hope Share Center and carried out various activities including planting flowers and painting a mural in the middle of August.
Additionally, volunteers carry out various activities quarterly for North Korean child defectors with “KT Olleh University Students Volunteers” to promote joint volunteering activities of Korean and foreign university students.
“Outstanding foreign students in Korea will contribute to creating a warm society by supporting multinational children with several children centers in Seoul,” said Yun Hee-chen, a Multicultural Family Support official of SMG. “We hope foreign students enjoy their lives in Korea by teaching children, thereby contributing to improving Korea’s image and creating a Korea-friendly network.”
Park Kyoung-eun
kathypark226@ewhain.net