Two Stories from KONA Volunteers

Seven Years with KONA

By Nayan Das

It has been more than seven years that I have been in Korea. I came to Korea as a PhD student and am now a researcher. In the seven years, many things have changed in my life. I lost some people near to me and also gained many things. But one constant thing was volunteering with KONA. It has been a wonderful life-learning journey. Officially, I joined KONA in 2016. Since then, I have met many amazing people through this volunteering experience and had many opportunities to experience Korean culture.

As KONA volunteers, we met in person at the KONA Storybook Center, read storybooks, and shared lessons with children prior to Covid-19. Kids also read storybooks according to their level, made story maps, shared them with other kids, and presented them in front of all participants. They were also encouraged to express their opinion about what they felt after reading a book. It was always entertaining. The senior children were trained to teach junior children in what was essentially leadership training. We also took the time to celebrate special cultural and historical events of different countries. However, after Covid-19 hit the world, everything became chaotic, and our volunteering moved from offline to online.

Online volunteering was a new experience for me. Through online fora, we started teaching English to adults and kids. KONA volunteering switched from being local to global. People from different countries (Canada, USA, India, etc.) were able to join in the live online storybook readings and discussions. It was a great experience to see people of all ages and backgrounds come together in one screen. We are still doing story maps presentations and story sharing in this way. We can now do volunteering from our home and office through Zoom.

The year 2022 was a very eventful one for me. I graduated with my PhD from GIST, had an accident and broke a leg, had an operation, and got a job as a postdoctoral researcher. I have become busier than before. However, I am still doing KONA volunteering and learning something new every time. I am grateful to the founder, professor Kim Young-im, for allowing me to be a part of the KONA volunteering group.