austraLasia
1386
International Youth
Volunteer Service, Korea:
2006
SEOUL: 11 January
2006 -- Some months ago we ran a story on the activity
of young Japanese volunteers gathering in Don Bosco's name and heading off to
places like East Timor, or the Solomon Islands. Now comes news of the
International Youth Volunteer Service in Korea, and its plans for 2006.
Within the week, a group of 24 participants, including with three Salesians,
will head for Cambodia, Phnom Penh to be precise, where they will assist in the
construction of an Oratory and a dormitory.
This is the
fifth year of activity of the IYVS which came into existence at the time of the
Golden Jubilee celebrations of Salesian presence in Korea. Their first
venture was to Mongolia, where they helped out with the incipient street
children work in Ulaan Baatar. Then to East Timor, three years running,
2002-5. In 2005 a group went to the Southern Philippines to help in the
Salesian parish there near Bacolod City on Negros, building a parish
hall.
The group is far more than a collection of
carpenters and bricklayers of course. Working with them is Salesian
Brother Bosco Park and a lay woman, Professor Lee Myong Cheon, mass media
department professor from Chung Ang University. She has been a volunteer
in the Don Bosco Youth Social Communication Centre, Shin Gil Dong, Seoul since
1995. The IYVS meet monthly, during which they share experiences and are
formed in Salesian youth spirituality.
The IYVS is
registered as an NGO with the Ministry of Culture. For each project abroad
it receives a small amount of financial assistance, limited to USD 10,000, for
construction and general help in the place where they are
located.
This year there has been a further and specific
request for help from East Timor for a Korean language teacher. A Mr Shin
Dae Chool left Korea for East Timor yesterday, 10 January, in response to that
request.
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