Four Americans are set to bike 5,000 kilometers through the Balkans to raise cash for North Korean kids. Andrew Godlewski, Suzanne Heibel, Stephen Sessions and Katie Tibbetts met while teaching English in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, and are now planning a 3-month cycling trip through Eastern Europe to help fund bakeries that feed children in North Korea.The four aim to cycle in a giant loop from Turkey though 13 countries in a bid to raise $10,000 in sponsorship for the charity Love North Korean

March 14, 2012

A charity concert in Seoul has raised almost 2 million won to help support Korean unwed mothers and their children.Around 250 people attended the CLASH concert in Hongdae’s Freebird club on March 10 to enjoy rock and hip-hop artists from the expat and Korean music scene. More than 20 performers came together for the charity night under the banner of “Two Worlds Collide for the Greater Good.”The money raised will go toward Korean Unwed Mothers and Family Association’s work to help single and unma

March 14, 2012

A comic has been published to promote cultural diversity to kids in Korea. The book titled “Hello! Global Citizens” aims to teach children about peace, human rights and sustainable development. UNESCO Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding created the educational comic aimed to help elementary and high school students overcome cultural differences. Thirteen artists helped bring the different stories to life and 6 Southeast Asian and Korean folktales were depicted for an

March 7, 2012

A group of volunteers will help out at a Korean eco village this weekend.They will work at the Handemy Eco Village in Danyang, North Chungcheong Province, from March 9-11. The small settlement is made up of 25 households at the foot of Sobaek Mountain, 2 1/2 hours from Seoul. The villagers run an alternative elementary school, as well as organic farms from which they get their food. The village also has a learning center where city students can experience rural village life.About 15 WWOOF Korea

March 7, 2012

While South Korea is slamming China’s treatment of North Korean refugees, rights workers are calling for more help for international asylum seekers struggling to survive here. A new law has been set to help the growing number of people seeking refugee status in South Korea, but more support is still needed, refugee rights group NANCEN has said. The total number of people from countries other than North Korea seeking asylum here reached 3,534 last September, according to the Korea Immigration Ser

March 7, 2012

A group of South Korean volunteers has traveled to Nepal to help people living in remote mountain communities there. It was the first trip to Nepal for all five volunteers, who paid for their own transportation, living costs and other expenses.They traveled first from Katmandu to a small village named Bimbad in the Bagmati area of Nepal.To reach the village of about 200 people living in about 27 households, they traveled for about seven hours in a jeep and three hours of trekking to the southeas

Feb. 29, 2012

Some of the Hongdae music scene’s most-loved acts are to play at night to promote cultural diversity and raise money for single moms in Korea. CLASH aims to unite the Korean and expat communities for charity under the motto “Two worlds collide for the greater good” on March 10. Co-organizer Hannah Kamau said the night aims to bring together two different communities as well as two different musical styles to support the Korean Unwed Mothers and Families Association. KUMFA advocates for the right

Feb. 29, 2012

A North Korean orphan turned American businessman has been awarded for helping children in his home country and across the globe. Han Sang-man, who helps underprivileged children around the world, received the 2012 Humanitarian of the Year Award from The Southern California Chapter of Sister Cities International. The award, given on Feb. 25, recognizes The Han-Schneider International Children’s Foundation’s work to help orphans in North Korea, Cambodia, Ethiopia and Tanzania.Han himself was an i

Feb. 29, 2012

People living in a Seoul shantytown are a little warmer this winter thanks to 4,000 coal briquettes delivered to their makeshift homes by volunteers.Around 100 Mannam International volunteers visited Guryong Village, in the otherwise plush Gangnam area to hand out the briquettes following a fire that damaged some of the 1,200 shacks there.Fires caused by energy surges from unregulated electrical generators or gas explosions are a common occurrence in the unauthorized settlement of about 2,500 pe

Feb. 29, 2012

It started with disabled people wanting to take the subway. After a wheelchair-bound man fell to his death on a Seoul subway stairwell in 2001, Park Kyung-seok started campaigning. Other disabled people soon joined him in calling for improvements to public transport to ensure that the chairlift accident at Oido Subway Station was never repeated. Park founded Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination and launched the high-profile “Right to Move” campaign. But before their campaig

Feb. 22, 2012

For the 2.5 million people registered as disabled in Korea, daily life can be a constant struggle.Employment is hard to find when you are in a wheelchair, education levels among disabled people are low, and even leaving the house can be near impossible for the severely disabled who have nobody around to help.But support group Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination is campaigning to change laws it believes set Korea’s disabled people at a disadvantage.Severely disabled members of SADD held

Feb. 22, 2012