Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adventurer]

Has anyone volunteered to spend time with orphans? Did you enjoy that? I only have time during the mornings for a couple of hours and maybe one Saturday a month or sometimes on a Sunday.
How do the orphans feel about seeing us? I live in Ilsan, by the way.

I feel like I am in a pay it forward mood...

[Yaya]

Try yheesun.com.

[trinity24651]

I read on some thread in here that the Korean government wouldn't allow volunteering...

[tomato]

[Cerebroden]

My wife and I have gone as well as know another couple who go on a regular basis. Any attention they can get the kids love. And I don't think you have to worry too much about the deportation thing as long as you aren't teaching english (like another poster said) I mean, even if you just go to hang out. We've helped paint and clean up, anything along those lines is fine.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Speaking more about teenage orphans than younger children, I've found there are a few who are really enthusiastic about English in general and understand what a great opportunity having a FT volunteer is, as well as a few who probably come more because they're bored / curious. Yes, they do crave adult attention. The one challenge doing any sort of volunteer teaching at an orphanage is that in addition to kids of very, very different abilities, there is also the age and sex difference dynamic (maybe some orphanages are same-sex, but the one I help at is mixed). Doing some one-on-one work done with some of the more enthusiastic kids at the beginning or end of your time there can be the most beneficial of all.

One of the biggest problems is coordinating things with orphanage staff if none of them speak English. The staff are delighted to have foreigners coming to help their kids, but trying to get something as simple as a DVD-playing device set up in advance can be an impossibility. Volunteering at an orphanage where's there's a fully bilingual staff member / volunteer coordinator would be very nice.

It's also useful to bear in mind that many of the 'orphans' at such places would really be better classified in western terms as foster children, and the orphanage a combination orphanage / group home. Considering the family problems some of them have probably experienced, they tend to be unbelievably nice.

[Bibbitybop]

First, read this:

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200701/kt2007010917422010220.htm


Second: The orphanage in Seoul received some foreign volunteers a few months ago. The kids loved them. Then they asked that no more foreigners come to visit. Idiots.