The reason I started creating this app is simple – there weren’t anywhere to find volunteer work. As I mentioned before, the national volunteering website is not great.
But once I started working on the app and creating an organization, I realized it’s necessary to look into where volunteers are needed. The short answer is: there are so many places. Although it would be great, I can’t cover everything, so. I thought I could focus on finding volunteers to teach English, as there aren’t many native English speakers in Korea, but there are many more that want to learn.
So I began thinking about where I can find people to teach English. There aren’t many opportunities for middle and high schoolers like myself. The best I’ve found is reading English books to kindergarteners in a local library. And even that is unavailable most of the time.
For adults, educational volunteering mostly takes place in welfare centers, where they offer after-school programs for kids from low-income families. They exist everywhere in Korea, and English is one of the subjects most desperate for help.
Then when I looked deeper, I realized there was a gap. For example, in the group home I volunteer at, the kids are receiving government support, so they are not eligible for free programs offered at welfare centers, as it’s considered “duplicate support.” This applies to any organization that receives funding from the state, such as alternative schools for North Korean defectors. Adults are often affected as well.
I’ve been thinking about North Korean defectors lately, and many of them never received the chance to learn English, making life outside of North Korea extremely difficult – especially since modern Korea uses so much English. Since they’re grown adults, it’s even harder to get support.
In the group home I volunteer at, there are some high school students who say that learning English communication skills is what they need the most. But private tutoring and academies are expensive, so I thought it would be great if volunteers can help them. Because kids in group homes or from North Korean backgrounds already receive financial support for independence, they often don’t get help with their education.
Thisi s why I want to reach out to people who fall through the cracks of government supprot, like those in group homes or North Korean defectors. I’m not saying I’ll save them, or anything grand like that, but I wanted to find others who care about these problems, and hopefully create a small culture where volunteering is a part of everyday life.
So I guess I’ll need to finish UX in Figma.