On January 2, 2017, CBNU students went abroad to do volunteer work. I heard some stories about three students who went to Vietnam to do volunteer work as a part of the program of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
  Here are the three students: Kim Hae-in (’15, Dept. of Child Welfare), Hong Ye-ha(’16, Dept. of International Management), and Ryu Chan-ju (’13, Dept. of German Language and Literature).
  The volunteer group visited local schools and villages, and they conducted educational programs and various volunteer activities, such as painting murals on the village walls and helping workers to construct a watercourse.

What made you participate in the program of the KOICA?

Kim Hae-in  I took a class named ‘Introduction to International Development Cooperation’, as a friend of mine recommended it. Since I knew that I could attend overseas volunteer work through this class, I  prepared diligently for the exam in the class, and the classes were quite interesting. As a result, I could get good scores and was picked  for the volunteer work.

Hong Ye-ha  I was interested in the field of international development, and I thought that my dream would be related to those things. In the meantime, I saw a banner promoting the KOICA Business by chance and decided to participate in the program. Even though it was hard to prepare for the exam for the volunteer work, it was very rewarding.

What kinds of activities did you do there?

Kim Hae-in  The main volunteer activities were two things: teaching disadvantaged  students in a boarding school and painting murals on the village walls. Both activities were based on the residents’ participation. Speaking of teaching the students, at first, we had trouble communicating with them because of the language barrier. However,  we were able to share happy feelings when we participated in the experiment named ‘Egg Drop’ by using body language.
  In the case of  painting murals, it was just drawing pictures and the KOICA logo on the village wall. In the process of drawing, we realized what the residents wanted was different from what we wanted. However, at that time, we managed to talk with them by using body language.

Do you usually do volunteer work?

Kim Hae-in  My major is Child Welfare, so I have done much volunteer work before. I mainly did volunteer work for the underprivileged children, so I thought there were many children who needed help.

Was there any difficulty in communication?

Hong Ye-ha  In the case of international volunteer work, we needed to prepare to help with  areas that were lacking in their situation. When we found out about their residential environment, culture and political situation, we could communicate with the natives and were able to carry out our volunteer work without conflicts.

After KOICA, what do you think is the true meaning of doing volunteer work.

Kim Hae-in  This experience led me to think that volunteering is not just providing our labor, and  I came to realize that true volunteer work is when both the volunteers and the people who are being helped are happy together. Therefore, I think volunteering is not a one-way activity but a two-way activity. Finally, I think the ideal volunteer work is to make the best and most satisfactory result with the given budget and human resources.

Hong Ye-ha  Most importantly, I think volunteering is about sharing. While participating in this KOICA activity, I was given the opportunity to participate in various projects, and I came to know that it is the most important thing to give them what they really need.

By Kim Jae-wan
jw37@cbnu.ac.kr