Concert to raise funds for orphanages

By Kim Young-jin

Staff reporter

Five bands will hit the stage at Club FF in Hongdae, Seoul on Saturday to celebrate multiculturalism in Korea and raise money for the cause of equal access to education.

Organized by Connect Korea, an education-focused expat group, the show’s proceeds will benefit two orphanages _ the Suwon-based House that Nurtures Dreams and Our House, a North Korean children’s refugee center in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.

The evening will include performances by Korean bands Easy Boy and Rubber Ducky, as well as the RockTigers, who are bound to get the audience bopping with their high-octane brand of rockabilly.

Expat bands the Noise and Kachisan will round out the lineup. The latter impressed at the Haebangchon Festival last month with psychedelic, yet catchy, sonic explorations.

The funds raised will go toward purchasing computers, books and other learning materials for the orphanages.

Connect Korea was founded this year by expats Abhishek Joshi, an Indian research engineer and Gregory Penceis, an American researcher, to address the need for equal access to English-language education.

“We have seen so much demand for English in this country and a lot of people go to hagwon,” the organization said. “But there is a certain segment of society that doesn’t have access to hagwon, to expensive English academies.”

Korea’s spending on private lessons, according to unofficial estimates, total some $30 billion per year. Such spending contributes to a widening education divide, as quality education is far more accessible to the wealthy, while underprivileged families are being left behind.

“We feel that these kids should have an equal opportunity to learn English and to have the same access to native speaking teachers that the children enrolled in hagwon get,” the organization said. “Everyone should have equal access to education.”

Joshi is also the coordinator of Program REACH, a Suwon-based volunteer initiative that teaches English at the Suwon-based orphanage.

Connect Korea hopes establish a similar program at Our House as well as distance-learning opportunities in both Ansan and Suwon.

The event kicks off Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at Club FF in Hongdae, Seoul. Admission is 10,000 won. For more information, visit the event’s Facebook page: ROK Concert-Fundraiser: Bands Battle with Molotov Vibrations.