HYUNDO'S VOLUNTEERING JOURNAL

Sillim

Kakiri

KOREA

HYUNDO’S VOLUNTEERING JOURNAL Muban Chao Khao

Hyundo Kwon

Sukabumi

INDONESIA

THAILAND

Holynations KOREA

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Contents Resume

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Foreword

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Sukabumi, INDONESIA

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Sillim, KOREA

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Muban Chao Khao, THAILAND

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Kakiri, UGANDA

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Holynations, Korea

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January 2009

March, 2010

August, 2010

August, 2011

Since 2010 ~

Conclusion

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Resume Social Service Kwangsung Foundation Music sub-teacher for North Korean defector children. Taught North Korean defector children to sing for 4 years.

Holynations Mission

Worked as a medical services translator for foreign workers.

Didimdol Community

Cooked meals and delivered them for senior citizens who live alone

Canaan Farmers school Translator and secretary for the President visiting Thailand Media Press Center

2014 Asian Games Translator at Media Press Center

Sports Founded Basketball Club - ‘Serengeti’ 3rd place at the Korean special purpose high-school soccer championship Gold medal at Goyang city Taekwondo Competition

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Awards Outstanding book report writer Prize for service from Goyang congressman’s office Prize for good conduct

Clubs

Prize for English achievement

Hyundo, Kwon

Founded basketball club - ‘Serengeti’ Founded research club - ‘Farewell to Poverty’ Goyang Debate Society

Leadership

Class president (10th,11th,12th) Chair of the student council (9th grade) Captain of the school soccer team

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Foreword My father is a doctor and he often went on medical services trips both nationally and internationally. Tagging along, I was assigned the task of checking up on the patients, preparing medicine according to my father’s prescriptions, and distributing them to the people waiting in line. I was quite proud of myself, feeling as if my father and I were a duo on a mission and I learned a sense of responsibility.

In writing this booklet, I wanted to share the special moments of each trip: what I had learned by seeing new places, what I had felt interacting with the locals, and what shaped my dreams and goals.

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Sukabumi INDONESIA January 2009

A great tsunami hit Indonesia in 2009 and many homes of Indonesians were swept away. My father and I went to volunteer our medical services for three days that year. An amazing 1684 people came and we worked around the clock for those three days.

Strangely, there were many people with lumps on their bodies so my father had to perform numerous surgical operations, big and small. My job was to stand by him and run errands, including preparing medicine according to his prescriptions. I remember that children were mostly given nutritional supplements while the adults were given anthelmintic (generally used to destroy parasitic worms).

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One of the children who came for treatment was wearing the same set of clothes as me. I was pleasantly surprised and hurriedly asked my father to take a picture. I wonder how this boy is doing now.

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SillimKOREA

March 2010

Located in Gangwon-do province, there is a small village called Sillim.

In Korea, Gangwon-do is famous for its snow, and since Sillim is a small village in the mountains where medical service is poor, my father often visits to volunteer to help the elderly.

One day he was asked by the village church to come and he prepared 100 ringer solutions. Many seniors came to the church for help but their numbers were great and the church too small. My father and I contemplated this for a minute and had a brilliant idea: we asked people to get rope from their houses and then we tied them up and mounted the ringer solutions to the ceiling. We were able to accommodate many people effectively due to the efficient use of space.

The job I was given at the time was to hold elderly arms up and press them so that my father could find veins more easily. I also had to measure the time rate of the ringer solutions and disinfect people’s arms after they were done.

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Here’s an idea. Why don’t we hang the ringers on the ceiling?

My father and I in the church. I felt great volunteering that day. Every grandpa and grandma treated me like their own grandson.

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Muban THAILAND Chao Khao

August 2010

In Thailand, there is a village called Muban Chao Kao high up in the mountains, 6 hours from Bangkok. I thought that we had arrived when the bus came to a stop after three hours of rough driving, but we boarded another vehicle and went up the mountains for another three hours.

We didn’t receive the warmest welcome when we arrived and most of the villagers seemed apprehensive at first, but the children and I got along soon enough and I think even the adults let down their guards after seeing their children running about and laughing with me.

Most of the villagers had never been exposed to medical services during their life time, and are generally prone to early death. The children eat and sleep in the same environment as dogs and there is no sense of sanitation. There were no proper places to go to the bathroom or wash up. It was difficult for me to stand it even though I was only there a short period of time. I couldn’t imagine living in such a place. Inevitably, many people suffer from parasites and virus infections. Some people came to the village from very far away locations to receive our services, even crossing mountains! Some told us that it took them fully 24 hours to get there. For a 13 year old teenager, everything came as a shock that day.

On this trip, I started to wonder what I can do for people in such situations. It was on this day I think, that I decided to become someone who can help people in 3rd world countries.

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Kakiri UGANDA August 2011

I have a friend for life. His name is John Bosco and lives Kakiri, Uganda. He is the school president of Kakiri Glorious School. He built it from scratch, brick by brick and his deeds inspired me greatly. When he told me that he was planning to build a library, I really wanted to be of help to him and told him on the spot that I would find a way.

When I returned to Korea, I spent my entire summer gathering books, going around and asking for help from everywhere and everyone I knew.

Though it wasn’t easy, I managed to amass one thousand and eightytwo books during summer vacation. Carefully boxed up, they were sent off to Uganda. A month later, I received a photograph of the library from Bosco. He told me that he decided to name the library after me in thanks for all my efforts.

I feel immense pride in having helped lay the foundation for the future generations of Kakiri School. Hopefully the books I sent will be stepping stones to their future. In helping them, I realized I got back much more in return, and started to discover who I am as a member of society.

Volunteering to do medical service in Kakiri, Uganda, my job remained the same as it was at other locations. What was special to me though was that I was able to spend time with the children reading books from the ‘Hyundo Library’ during our three days of service. It was a special feeling to see the books that I had sent from Korea in another country, and even more special when I read them to the children as their eyes twinkled.

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Left: Myself. Center: Bosco. Right: My father.

A trip that I’ll never forget and a friendship which will last forever.

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Holynations KOREA Since 2010~

The Holynations Mission located in Siksa-dong, Ilsan, Korea is a shelter for foreign workers of the region. There are many furniture factories in the area, and many foreign workers work there. Since 2012, my father and I visit the place every fourth Sunday of each month to volunteer our medical services.

My eyes were opened to the diversity of the foreign workers. Paying frequent visits to their homes, they welcomed me and told me their true life stories, how they missed their families, and the future they wanted to build after earning enough money in Korea. They showed me photos of their smiling children around my age, holding gifts their fathers had sent from Korea.

Though different in appearance and language, I naturally understood how everybody leads similar lives around the world.

I began to dream of traveling widely to meet even more people and feel this sense of unity among human beings.

Due to the government policies, there are much less foreign workers compared to a few years back, but my father and I still continue to do our volunteering.

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The two photos on this page is of the same place, and it shows how I grew up over the past four years.

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Conclusion My summer and winter vacations, were always spent with my father volunteering. As we offered our medical services, I never thought of myself as ‘helping’ poor people since I realized that I always received much more in return. Seeing their cultures and lifestyles up-close, I gained the kind of knowledge which I’ll never get from reading books. And the positive and loving feeling I get from trying to do good to others gives me such enthusiasm for life.

As a Christian and member of society, I will continue to volunteer throughout my life, hopefully with my father as I have long done, but I also look forward to meeting new people who share the same feelings and views as I do.

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Sillim

KOREA

THANK YOU FOR READING

Holynations KOREA

Kakiri

Muban Chao Khao

THAILAND 20

Sukabumi

INDONESIA