Keen divers and snorklers gathered to clean trash from a beach on Jeju Island this weekend. About 10 expat volunteers cleaned the coast between Hyeopjae Beach and Geumneung Beach on Saturday. The group spent about three hours cleaning the sand and surrounding area.“We got stuck in cleaning the shrubbery at the edge of the beach and the rocky shoreline. We also spent time digging out buried fishing nets and dragging half-burnt rope and net off the rocks,” said one of the organizers, Liz Church.Th

More than 10 refugee rights groups joined up on Saturday to commemorate World Refugee Day. The Refugee NGO’s Network held an information event and flash mob ahead of the international refugee day, which falls on June 20. The groups were also celebrating the passage of South Korea’s long-awaited Refugee Act. The Korean Refugee Act was enacted this Feb. 10 and will take effect July 1, 2013, confirming the rights of refugees that must be protected here. Many problems with South Korea’s refugee syst

Volunteers are to visit a Korean shantytown this weekend to clear up trash. Mannam International Volunteers will visit Guryong in southern Seoul to clean up trash in the village and near the river on Saturday. Expats will fill bags of trash and debris to help prevent pollution from washing into the streams this summer. Guryong Village is a settlement located Gangnam, in the shadow of luxury skyscrapers in the predominantly affluent and middle-class neighborhood. The community faces dire poverty,

Guatemalan student in Korea is running to help kids back homeKyung Hee University student Bremelin Romero has always seen education as the key to success, and now she’s set to run the Stockholm Marathon to help people in her home country.  The Guatemala-born, U.S.-educated graduate student is pursuing a master’s degree in International Relations and Free Trade Agreements in Korea, but she has not forgotten her Central American roots. Romero, who first came here in 2008 to work as a middle school

More than 15 artists are set to perform at a charity music night in Seoul this Saturday. The “CLASH” event ― with the tagline “Two worlds collide for the greater good” ― aims to bring together not only the expat and Korean communities, but also two different musical styles, to provide support for victims of sexual violence in Africa. A percentage of the proceeds raised from the event at Freebird in Hongdae from 7:30 p.m. to midnight will go to the Nabi (Butterfly) Fund to help women who are the

The anomalous disappearance of neutrons may be explained by their mirror particles in a parallel universe, Italian theoretical physicists claimed.Past experiments showed that the loss rate of some very slow neutrons appeared to depend on the direction and strength of a magnetic field. This left scientists dumbfounded because a neutron, by definition, is a neutral particle.However, a theory by Zurab Berezhiani and Fabrizio Nesti from the University of l’Aquila alleges that such phenomenon happens

A day of events will be held in Seoul on Saturday to raise awareness of the plight of refugees both in Korea and worldwide.The Refugee NGOs’ Network, which consists of some 10 organizations working on refugee protection and rights, is organizing the day along with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea and the UNHCR-Korea, to celebrate World Refugee Day and Korea’s upcoming enforcement of an independent Refugee Act. The bill was enacted in February and will be enforced on July 1, 2013.The

Applications are now open for a human rights academy program to be held in Korea this summer. The May 18 Academy will run from July 30 ― Aug. 15 in Gwangju. It will provide training for domestic and international civil society activists working for human rights, democracy and peace.The event is organized by the May 18 Memorial Foundation, which was set up in the memory of democracy activists killed by soldiers in the Gwangju uprising of May 18, 1980. The event will include lectures from experts

A charity is seeking English-speaking expats to become personal tutors for North Korean refugees. People for Successful Corean Reunification currently has 144 students in need of private teachers.PSCORE was established in 2006 by young North Korean defectors, South Korean university students and foreigners interested in reunifying the Korean Peninsula. It offers support for North Korean refugees here as well as campaigning for the human rights of those remaining in the country.Part of its work i

Expats from around Korea will meet up for a sports tournament in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, this month to benefit African children. The 12-team futsal contest has been organized to raise money for the Purpose for Life Foundation. The organization supports several projects, including improving living conditions for people in the Kenyan community of Ngumbulu. Its most recent activity in December saw visiting volunteers making bricks for a child development center in the village situated 130 kil

Finland and Korea are both lauded for producing some of the world’s highest-performing students, but their education systems produce results by very different means. Korean kids endure long school days followed by hours of evening classes, causing the Korean government to ban tutoring after 10 p.m. Meanwhile, Finnish children have the third-shortest schooldays in the OECD and don’t start compulsory schooling until 7 years old. “We think that children need time for play,” explained former Finnish