Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
Foreign volunteers clean up Gyeonghui Palace
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Braving chilly weather, 16 foreigners gathered at Gyeonghui Palace in downtown Seoul, Tuesday, to help clean the cultural heritage.
They brushed away dust from the fancy frames of doors and windows and pulled up weeds growing between stone floor slabs. The opportunity was organized by the Seoul Global Center (SGC), one-stop service center for expatriates in Seoul,
“Usually we have more people, but the team is small today due to the cold weather,” Lim Jae-gyu of the SGC said. He added that many of them are students who wanted to volunteer during their stay in Korea.
“Some of them volunteer on a regular basis,” he said. The SGC offers such opportunity once or twice a year, but local global village centers have regular programs
Quen Tin, 24, from France has been in Seoul for three months now on a working holiday visa and joined the clean-up with his French friends. He had studied Korean in France and is now staying in Korea for a year for academic and vocational experience.
He found about the SGC through the Internet and visited the Seorae Global Village Center which is close to his house. “I saw the notice at the Seorae Center,” Tin said. “My friends and I just wanted to help. We did not have such chances in France, but here we can.”
Tin added that he wants to visit as many places as possible and meet a lot of people while he is in Korea.
Some international residents are regular volunteers in Seoul. Itaewon-Hannam Global Village Center, a branch of SGC, offers monthly volunteer chances at places such as Yongsan Center for the Disabled and Mannasaem Center for the Homeless.
Cora Igtiben, 48, from Philippines participates in the Itaewon-Hannam Center’s regular volunteer program.
“I like to do anything in my free time and the Global Village Center offers me free Korean classes. Volunteering is a way of giving back for the class,” Igtiben said. She has been here for about a year and half as her husband works in Korea. “It is a pleasure to be part of a team cleaning a cultural heritage of Korea.”
Volunteer opportunities are available at SGC’s website at global.seoul.go.kr.