Andamiro is an organization which aims to foster a donation culture in Korea, where the ideas of giving and sharing are not widely practiced. It was founded by a couple of students from Ewha Womans University in 2014. It started from a team project assignment for Share Leadership class which is a mandatory course to help students foster self-leadership.
“Andamiro is a pure Korean adverb meaning something to overflow over the brim,” said Lim Chai-hyeon (Business Administration, 2), a member of Andamiro. “We named our organization with the hope that our donation campaigns will spread to other areas in Korea to bloom a culture where donations become natural activities in people’s daily lives.”
As its first step, Andamiro has spread the “Very Good Manners” campaign in Seodaemun-gu with the help of several restaurants and cafes near Ewha in November 2014.
“We were looking for a way to make more people participate and enjoy making donations,” said Park Da-young (Business Administation, 2), another member of Andamiro. “The Polish Red Cross’s Very Good Manners campaign project was a great precedent which promoted a donation culture in people’s daily lives. We decided to bring this great model campaign into Korea.”
However, the campaign had to be changed before being implemented due to differences in cultural aspects between Korea and Poland.
“The campaign which first started in Poland was centered on Europe’s table manners and tip culture, which are not common in Korea,” Park said. “So we had to use a different way to attract people to make contributions in Korea. In the end, we conceived various methods using scratch-off lottery tickets, small donation boxes and candy machines to be used for our Very Good Manners campaign.”
There are a total of six restaurants, Earthen Bowl Spaghetti, Popo Tree, Baita, White Noodle Stripes and cafes, Lasim and Coffee Boy, adjacent to Ewha which hold the campaign, each in different methods. Commonly, there are explanatory leaflets with a drawing of cutlery placed in a cross symbol on the table for customers to understand the original campaign. It also introduces to the customers that they can help buy hot meals for children who cannot afford them even with a small amount of money. However, the specific fund-raising methods differ in each restaurant and cafe due to differences in interior structures and atmospheres.
Particularly, Popo Tree is the only place where scratch-off lottery tickets used for the campaign. After having a meal, anyone who wishes to contribute may voluntarily draw a donation ticket from the lottery box. Then, the customers are to scratch off the silver leaf and reveal a number ranging from zero, five hundred to one thousand, which represents the amount of money one is able to donate. There are also exceptional tickets with the following words printed on: “You are an angel, donate as much as you wish,” which has no limit of the amount of contribution. The donated money will be sent to the Korean Red Cross to support families in crisis.
“The campaign turned out to be a success despite the short amount of time it went on,” said Woo Yeon-ju (Business Administration, 2), the one of the members of Andamiro. “Although we were not able to achieve the amount of donation money we had expected, the participation of students and customers were very impressive. We were able to find out that Korea has a warm society where many care for each other.”
Now, Andamiro seeks to further spread the campaign to other areas.
“Many organizations are contacting us for our campaign to be held in other places,” Lim said. “We would like to help Korea flourish with the warmth of our campaign. In order to do so, we are also planning to recruit new members. We look forward for many people to gain interest and participate in our Very Good Manners campaign.”
Ewha Voice
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