Tongil Group’s 9th Multicultural Handicapped Children’s Family Camp 2015

[Newsis] “Parents of Multicultural Handicapped Children, Leave your Children with us and Rest Easy for Two Days”

‘The 9th Multicultural Handicapped Children’s Family Camp 2015’ was held from the 30th to the 31st, at the Taeyang gun Manlipo Youth Training Center, Choongnam over two days.

This camp with the slogan “Our family! Power up!” was hosted by the Corporation Multicultural Welfare Center. This camp, funded by the Tongil Group and the Handicapped Children Family Group Cheonbo Hoe, was attended by about 250 people, including multicultural handicapped children nationwide, and their families as well as volunteers.

On the 30th, the Multicultural Welfare Center Chairman Man-Oong Lee discussed the meaning of the camp during his opening remarks at the Opening ceremony, “The annual Multicultural Handicapped Children’s Family camp pairs up handicapped children with volunteers for one-on-one care. This allows the parents of the handicapped children to rest for two days, and presents an opportunity for volunteers to eradicate prejudice towards handicapped children and feel the real meaning of volunteering.”

Cheonbo Hoe President Naoko Hamaya said, “The Multicultural Handicapped Children’s Family camp is only held once a year, but it is the time of the year that multicultural handicapped families look forward to the most. We enjoy the year and wait for this time. We are sincerely grateful that so many people are supporting us.”

On the first day of the camp, the families and volunteers introduce themselves and get to know one another at the orientation. Then they take part in various games such as “family photo mission,” experience the beach and make T-shirts. They also have time to share love through free hugs, putting lotion on each other and talk about the concerts.

On the second day, the children and the volunteers engaged in a diverse array of games including removing post-its, the newspaper healing game, the push and pull game and other team mission games. The parents communicated with one another through the self-help meetings.

For some of the families, it was the first time they went to the beach as a family. Through this camp, family members could unite and understand each other’s hearts a little better. This shows that these kinds of opportunities should be organized more often.

The Multicultural Handicapped Children’s Family camp was one of the projects selected by the Tongil Group ‘Salary Round-off Hope Dream Project’ to receive 15 million won. The Sun Moon University club ‘Dong Haeng’, whose members participated as volunteers also donated two million won, making it an even more meaningful event.

The Multicultural Welfare Center, an organization run directly by multicultural families, received nationwide authorization of incorporation from the Women’s Family Department in 2011. They organize support, funding, volunteering, counseling and education so that multicultural families can share their heart with Korean society. The center, together with Cheonbohoe, in thinking about the future welfare of multicultural handicapped children, are working to establish a self-sufficient foundation that can help with funding by connecting with social businesses…