[With participants of ‘Happy Train for Multicultural Families’]
Multicultural family means a family of international backgrounds and cultures living in Korea. According to Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, currently in 2012, 266,547 multicultural families reside in Korea and the number grows every year.
As the number of multicultural families increased, problems were being pointed out such as the families having difficulty adapting to Korean society, break-up of multicultural families during the early stage of marriage. However, due to the efforts of the Korean government, local governments, related organizations, we’ve witnessed many improvements in various areas such as enhanced Korean language skills, increased marriage immigrants employment rate, poverty reduction of multicultural families and etc.
However, there are many areas which require more efforts for multicultural families such as increase in social discrimination, weak social networking, education and socializing skills of 2nd generation and more.
[In front of the KTX Gyunggang Station]
HUMAN IN LOVE acknowledges the need for support for multicultural families suffering from poverty and poor education. With NURIBODEUM of KTX Yongsan Station, we organized an event called ‘Happy Train for Multicultural Families.’ Through this event, the families were able to travel around Korea which enhanced their knowledge about Korea and made them bond with their family members.
Last Saturday, March 23rd, we celebrated the 3rd anniversary of ‘Happy Train for Multicultural Families’ and went on a trip with multicultural families to Namiseom. At the event, we had multicultural families with various backgrounds such as Mongolia, China, the Philippines, and Thai, and NURIBODEUM Volunteers including the station agent of KTX Yongsan Station, Chi-Ho SHIM.
[Happy families on rail bike]
The families rode rail bike near Bukhan Riverside. The kids were excited about their family trip which they haven’t had for a long time. Fathers who felt awkward at first enjoyed riding the rail bike with their family members.
[Taking a picture at Namiseom]
Once an isolated island, Namiseom, now has many different attractions with themes. It is truly a place for healing and culture. On the way back home, kids played vocabulary game of foreign language.
“How do you say aunt in Mongolian?” “I know the answer!”
As I watch them play the game, I felt that children from multicultural families are the true asset for Korean society. I believe their abilities to respect different cultures will help the society as a whole to embrace different cultures. Thank you for supporting multicultural families.
