Boiler engineer brings warmth to jobless

For 14 years, Lee Young-soo has brightened the futures of more than 500 people on the margins of society by providing boiler engineering classes.The 57-year-old started his school in 1998 when the Asian economic crisis deprived hundreds of thousands of people of their jobs, homes and dreams. He trained those victims of the recession with skills to work themselves out of poverty.“I saw many people losing their jobs and becoming hopeless. I thought teaching people skills would be much more meaning

Aug. 1, 2012

First farmer joins club of big donors

Bae Jun-sik, a 59-year-old man who grows ginseng in Gimje, North Jeolla Province, became the first farmer to join the “Honor Society” club of large individual donors. “Honor Society” was founded in 2008 by the Community Chest of Korea and currently has 139 members. It aims to develop a mature philanthropic culture. To become a member, one must donate a minimum of 100 million won ($87,000).“Sharing takes courage to do; I hope this will be a small initiative for the diffusion of charity culture in

July 25, 2012

‘Adopting child is like falling in love’

Gang Su-suk, 52, and her husband Tag Jeong-sig, 60, have a big family by anyone’s standards, but of their 10 children, eight were adopted and a ninth is being fostered. “When my husband and I had our first son, I felt a strong urge to adopt kids,” Gang said. “My mother passed away when I was little so I know how hard it is for a child to live without a mother. This naturally made me want to adopt.”With the support of her husband, Gang adopted her first child when her eldest son was 5 years old.

July 25, 2012

For ‘Book grandma,’ charity is lifetime mission

79-year-old Ryu receives government order for helping underprivileged studentsFor 30 years, she has been a benefactor for more than 150 students. Ryu Yang-sun, 79, the owner of a small salted fish shop in Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market, has been giving books and scholarships to young students in financial difficulties.“I want to be the pillar of support for poor students so that they can definitely continue their education,” she said.Ryu was born into a poor family in which going to a sch

July 18, 2012

T-shirts sold to help beat cancer

Friends of a former English teacher in Korea now battling cancer in the U.S. are asking people to buy a T-shirt that he helped to design. The shirt designed by Tyler Schroeder is now being sold online to help support his medical fees. For every $20.99 T-shirt sold, $6 will go toward his ongoing medical expenses and his family’s transport costs.The 26-year-old is currently in a hospital in Minnesota after being moved to the U.S. from South Korea, where he was first diagnosed and operated upon to

July 4, 2012

V-ball pro to support Jeju charity

Former pro-beach volleyball player Han Ji-yeon is to visit Jeju to give a free clinic for Korean women to help support a charity on the island. She agreed to make the trip after learning about Jeju Furey and deciding to support the cause. The charitable group was set up in 2009 in memory of English teacher Nathan Furey, who died while living on the island in what is thought to have been a sudden case of encephalitis.The foundation has already raised more than 20 million won ($18,000), which has

July 4, 2012

Seeking funds to film Korea’s adoption story

Korean-American adoptee aims to map ‘Geographies of Kinship’ across the globeGrowing up in 1960s Fremont, California, Deann Borshay Liem imagined that she was the only Korean in a white family across all of America’s vast suburbia. But, as the girl who was sent at age 8 from a Korean orphanage to be adopted in the U.S. slowly discovered, there are almost 200,000 more like her throughout the world. Hearing some of these others adoptees’ stories has helped her understand herself and realize that s

July 4, 2012

CLASH cashes in for women’s charity

A charity music event in Seoul has raised more than 1 million won to help victims of sexual violence. CLASH 2.0 held at Hongdae’s Freebird on Saturday collected 1.3 million won ($1,120) for the Nabi (Butterfly) Fund. The fund was created by victims of Japanese military sexual slavery Kim Bok-dong and Gil Won-ok in coordination with the Korean Council for the Women Drafted into Military Sexual Slavery by Japan to support other rape survivors. It supports the work of Rebecca Masika Katsuva on beha

June 27, 2012

KOTRi partners with Adidas

A mountain preservation group has announced a new partnership with Adidas Korea. The company has pledged to help fund Korea On The Rocks Initiative’s work to repair climbing routes on Korean peaks. KOTRi, founded in 2010 by Bryan Hylenski, carries out various projects to maintain and replace old climbing equipment on rock faces across the country to provide a safer climbing environment. Now, Adidas Korea has agreed to purchase all hardware, supplies and equipment for KOTRi to complete its 2012 p

June 27, 2012

Korea Herald takes youth volunteers to Philippines

Herald Media recently hosted a youth volunteer camp in the Philippines, where South Korean high school students helped plant mangroves. The 2012 Youth Global Volunteer Camp, sponsored by the Philippines’ Cebu City Government and the University of Visayas, held its inaugural volunteer event from June 14-23. The Global Volunteer Camp focused on the Cebu area, where participants planted mangroves along the waterfront as part of a campaign to defend against natural disasters and protect the environm

June 27, 2012

Picturing Seoul to send to the world

Global street art project aims to share respect between many nationsHundreds of Seoulites are posing for portraits to join a global street art project for World Peace Day. The Inside Out Project aims to capture images of people in 17 countries before sharing the posters as public art in cities across the world on Sept. 21. The project inviting participants to “Be the Change” aims to connect people from different countries and cultural backgrounds to help them share their respect for the natural

June 27, 2012