During March and April, the school’s West Gate has been bustling with Korea University (KU) students waiting to meet up with seniors or juniors for lunch. This is a typical scenery of KU at the start of school, where students get to know each other through “ppapp yak.” Ppapp yak is literally the Korean phrase for friendly lunch appointment, where seniors and juniors have a chance to get to know each other over food. A group of students, however, found a way to make these lunches a little more meaningful.

A group of students from Sociology thought of a method to make a charitable donation in a practical way. This donation called “Chak-han ppapp yak,” is a system where the juniors donate 1,000 won to show their gratitude toward their seniors for buying their lunch. This idea came from a student named Kim Sang Hyeok, (’13, Sociology) who was travelling during his summer vacation. While Kim challenged himself and cycled across country, he received much encouragement from those around him. He liked the idea that he could challenge himself and also complete his challenge with the help of others. From there, he thought of another challenge that could involve everyone and make a difference to the society. He found his answer in raising donations to help charities. He started searching for ways to make donating much more approachable even in our daily lives. During this period, he also learnt about “bekind,” a website that helps people to do charity work easily online, and put everything into action.

Kim contemplated for a long time to make an approachable charity. While he was pondering about the method, he remembered a story that he heard before. A boy named Charlie Simpson, started a charity to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Charlie first started with a goal of 500 dollars on the website similar to “bekind.” However, as the sponsors and the donations multiplied, the amount of money grew to over 240,000 dollars.

“When I first came up with the idea, I told about ten of my closest friends. Everyone around me was really supportive,” said Kim. He started to spread this idea with the support and encouragement of these people. His friends and juniors all decided to participate in this charity and it slowly started to spread in his major. Although the donation is not active in all majors, Kim still believes that small changes he made in the school were very meaningful.

▲ Kim Sang Hyeok, (’13, Sociology), Photographed by Kim Na Young

When the charity work first started, some people misunderstood the objective. Some believed that “Chak-han ppapp yak” could turn papp yak into monetary values. Furthermore, some claimed that freshman students could also feel pressured to make a donation. However, according to Hwang Kyu Yeon ('14, Sociology) this is a simple misunderstanding. “‘Chak-han ppapp yak’ is aimed to give an opportunity to make donations accessible in our daily lives. It is never and should never be a forced action. It is not to enhance relationship through money, but to make donation possible in our daily lives. I hope I could get an opportunity to do Chak-han ppapp yak with freshmen next year.”

While 1,000 won is the minimum amount of money that you can pay through “bekind,” they could give more if they want to. Kim also thought that 1,000 won was an amount that would not be burdensome to students. The entire point of this charity was to facilitate the donation process. By setting the donation price at 1,000 won, he successfully achieved his goal. “This charity work requires juniors to be involved. It was really important for us to not give any types of burden to the juniors to make donations.” He tried to make the donation more of a voluntary action, rather than something that came from any outside pressure.

▲ Hwang Kyu Yeon (‘14, Sociology), Photographed by Kim Na Young

The donations that are made from this charity are going to be given to help the students from low-income sectors. He thought that the minimum amount that could help one student is 250 thousand won. Kim thought that helping other types of hardship, such as childhood cancer, would be out of most students’ reach. That is why he set the goal to raise 125 thousand won. He thought that the rest of the money could come from professors who would kindly make the donations.

The donation has reached over 100 thousand won by April, since many people were actively involved in making the donation. Kim, however, does not consider the amount of money as the priority. Although the “ppapp yak” season is already over, he is content that he was able to spread the idea of charity throughout the campus. He also wants a method to make the charity offline. One method to achieve his goal was to carry out a system called “Chak-han” resturants, which is the extended version of “Chak-han ppapp yak.” When restaurants agree to sponser the charity, it buys coupons in which students who go to the restaurant can again receive, after making donations. He hopes that in the future, ten restaurants could make five donations each week.

Regardless of the amount of donations that are made, Kim aims to make KU the space of sharing. “Many people are actually willing to make a donation, but they just don’t know where and how to do so. I want to give them an opportunity, and make donating a much more enjoyable and joyful experience,” said Kim.