No.165 / Sep 4, 2023
Rural volunteer activity is for college students to help with insufficient work in rural areas during vacation. This is part of an activity to understand the situation in rural areas, and its origin can be found in rural enlightenment activities in the 1920s. During the summer vacation, the Ajou University 42nd Student Council “We:A” and Club Union “ONDO” organized 2023 rural volunteer activity together. Rural volunteer activity was conducted from August 16 to 19, 2023, and 26 students were recruited on a first-come, first-served basis from Ajou University. Students paid 70,000 won per person to participate and were able to receive 30 hours of volunteer work or one credit for “Community Service Practice” as a benefit for participating in the rural volunteer activity.
Students went to Yeongdong-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do for volunteer work in rural areas. As grapes and peaches are famous in Yeongdong-gun, the students helped with the arrangement of the grape greenhouse and the wine farm run by the village’s senior citizens next to the village hall and went to a chili pepper and sesame farm to help. While the students were staying at the village hall, rural residents talked to them a lot as they walked by the hall; they were very curious about the students and praised them for their good work. In addition, when the students prepared meals outside, they sometimes came to taste the food and gave them feedback and a lot of food, such as corn and wine.
Most of the volunteer work in rural areas happens during the summer vacation, and the most worrisome and difficult things for students during the summer vacation were probably the weather, scorching heat, and heat wave. Heat stroke management was the most worrisome, and a heat wave warning was issued on the second day, but fortunately, no participant was injured during the activities. Kim Sung-bin, a staff member of the rural volunteer work, said, “In addition to the biggest purpose of the service, there are various benefits to it, and personally, it is a valuable and meaningful activity that helps build good interpersonal relationships. Therefore, I hope many students participate and volunteer.”
By Kim Yun-a, AG Reporter
rladbsdk0306@ajou.ac.kr
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