Zayed University’s Community Service and Cultural Exchange Trip to South Korea

I went to South Korea along with a group of 10 students earlier this year. The 2 main goals of this trip were to do community service and interact with Korean students and exchange different aspects about our cultures.

Part of the community service was performed at a home for the elderly where we prepared lunch for the senior citizens. Tasks included setting up the tables and chairs, and preparing the meals from start to finish, and eventually distributing the food to the elderly and cleaning up afterwards. We were only supposed to go there for one day, but the joy on their faces and the appreciation that they showed us made us want to volunteer another day as well. At first, the other volunteers at the home were surprised to see a large group of people from a strange place helping out for nothing in return, but we explained to them that both our culture and our religion encourage us to help others when we can.

We also went to a day care for children with various disabilities. We spent a day there and helped the staff with cleaning the house from top to bottom, and then helped with feeding the children during their lunch time. It was a very emotional day because most of the kids were very young, and had very severe disabilities, so we were all very glad that we had the opportunity to help the under staffed day care.

It was a great trip that was very enjoyable and a great learning experience, and I hope to go on many more like it.