Volunteer for your community!

     One day, 5 girls gathered in GIC(Gwangju International Center). All of them were from different high schools, but the goal they had was same. From that one sunny day on August, our volunteering for community has started.

 (이미지제공=광주국제교류센터)

     By my friend's suggestion, I decided to do a special volunteering for our community as a representative of 'Beautiful Minds', which is also a volunteering club in our school. Including me, the total members were 5 girls. At first, our plan was teaching Corean, math and other subjects to the children who were immigrated to Corea. The children we were going to teach were Johanna(15) and JR(9). They were from Philippines, and they were homeschoolers because they couldn't speak Corean. But their mother told to us that she wants us to do some activities, not studying. As Jo and JR didn't go to school, they had no chance to improve their social skills and adapt to Corea's culture, while they could study using the Internet. We were little concerned about their Corean as they hoped to go to University in Corea, but we followed their mother's request and focused on activities. Also, accepting my suggestion, we decided our goal as 'Pay It Forward' from the book 'Trevor(Pay It Forward)'. From August 8th to now, we have been doing activities that we had done in our schools with Jo and JR every Saturday.

     First activity held on August 22th was watching a movie 'Charlie and the chocolate factory' and sharing our thoughts about Wonka, 5 children and their parents' attitude. On September 12th, we fixed that day as a Art Day. We did pop-art which I had done when I was in elementary school. On September 19th, it was a Traditional Day. We taught Jo and Jr about how Corean children play when they are young. We played YutNolYi, Gong-gi and Ddak-ji. I was so happy as they really liked Corean traditional games. As October 10th was Hangul-Day, we did Corean calligraphy. Through this, they took more interests on Corean. On October 24th, We made Kimbap together. It was first time to Jo and JR to make Kimbap, and also it was my first time, too. Finally on November 14th, we had activity outside. Near the GIC, teen festival was being held in park, so we went there together. At there, we ate corn cheese, Kimchi-Jeon, and did mini book art, and Tuho(Corean traditional game). Recently, we also learned about Philippines like their flag, traditional games, and ate dried Mango.

 (이미지 촬영=대한민국청소년기자단 3기 천예영 기자 ⓒ대한민국청소년기자단)

     At first, I never thought that this would be so hard. But as this volunteering was autonomous, we had to care and prepare for this a lot to make it almost perfectly. Although it took my time a lot, I got many things from this volunteering, so I'm really satisfied. This volunteering was a perfect chance to me who like being friends with foreigners and doing volunteering. Through this volunteering, I was so proud of myself because I was doing something good that can make our community to a better place. Also, I could improve my English skills, not only speaking but also vocabulary skills, too. I will do this as long as I can do because it is so special to me.

     Now, I'm finding new member to do this volunteering with me! Anyone who can speak English and likes volunteering in our school is welcomed. We do volunteering 1:30 to 4:30 every Saturday at GIC.(Volunteering takes only 2 hours, but we need to discuss about next week's activity.) You don't need to participate every week. Just come anytime you are available(I think you will come almost every week if you REALLY like doing volunteering, and English.) If you are interested in this volunteering, just write a comment under this. Share your talents to others and volunteer for your community. I need a new idea bank!

[대한민국청소년기자단 국제부=3기 천예영 기자]