If you are interested in volunteer work, look around no further. Help may be needed at a place closer than you think. This month's Photo Essay aims to inform Yonseians about a school within the Yonsei campus that is giving hope to hospitalized children, a school that is in need of much care and aid by Yonseians.

- Kim Kang-rae, Editor of Photo Div.

   YOO IL-YOUNG (Prof., College of Nursing), now the Principal of Severance Children’s Hospital School, started off Severance Children’s Hospital School with nothing  but a desk and a sheet of paper. Unexpectedly, kids in the hospital started showing great interest, because experiencing somewhere that felt like school was not easy to come by for them. As a result, on Dec. 11, 2000, Severance Children’s Hospital School officially opened  as a school department in the Children’s Hospital. Furthermore, on March 2006, through the “Special Education Promotion Law,” Severance Children’s Hospital School was able to count the amount of hours spent in the Severance Children’s Hospital School as equivalent to attendance at ordinary schools. Children with weak immune systems are most likely to spend a long period of time in the hospital, which means they would have to start at a lower grade than their friends of the same age when they go back to school. This law allows these children to enjoy going to school after they leave the hospital.

 Study Time

Most children in the world do not enjoy studying. Being hospitalized makes this fact worse for the kids in Severance Children’s Hospital School. Despite all the hard obstacles they have to face during their hospitalization, they still strive to learn and pursue their dreams.

The Severance Children’s Hospital School is divided into two classes: one located on the 3rd floor, 38th ward, and the other on the same floor, 33rd ward.

Using pastel crayons, children draw their colorful imaginations on sheets of paper.

Kids experience making a train out of recycled material: a toothpaste box.

Kids are kids. Sometimes classes can get boring.

Community Service

   Severance Children’s Hospital School is 100% run by people who wish to share their love and hope. Everyone is a volunteer who sincerely wants to help out the school and children. Anyone who is an undergraduate or older is qualified to volunteer. Several undergraduates, graduates, people who were former teachers, and people who have qualifications for teaching are helping out currently, which makes it almost a hundred people. Also, organizations like KIDS United (a college student organization), Seo Hyun Church, psychologists, and art therapists have been helping these children.

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   No child in the world would want to visit the hospital thinking that he or she is sick. Children are most likely to think they have a serious disease, so they fear the fact that they are hospitalized, and then go through a tough time both physically and mentally. However, in spite of all these fears, the children of Severance Children’s Hospital School still strive for the best, no matter what kind of situation they are in. We might want to take this opportunity to look back at ourselves, and see if we, with a better environment than these children, have been living our lives to the fullest.

It Can Be You!

   Your little efforts can mean a big thing to these children. Just make one phone call and say, “I would like to help,” then you have volunteered    Or, you can also sign up for the KIDS United (community service organization of college students) just by visiting kidsunited.cyworld.com!

Park Soon-jun (Office Director, Severance Children’s Hospital School)
02) 2228-5964