Fundraising for the victims of the sunken ferry Sewol spread quickly
Korean citizens have voluntarily paid tribute to the victims and launched fundraising campaigns. ‘Hope Bridge - Korea Disaster Relief Association’ opened an account with Kookmin Bank to support the victims and their families: Account number 054990-72-010019 (Kookmin Bank), Account holder - Korea Disaster Relief Association.
Every time they use the ARS system (060-701-1004) or send a text message (#0095), donors may give KRW 2000.
Throughout the nation, each chapter of ‘Community Chest of Korea – Fruit of Love’ has begun raising money via its Nonghyup Bank account: Gyeonggi Joint Fund (143-17-006141), North Jeolla Joint Fund (301-0068-5950-21), South Chungcheong Joint Fund (301-0700-1212-01), and North Gyeongsang Joint Fund (705-01-190872). For more details, contact the joint fund in your area.
On April 17, the day after ferry Sewol sank, Naver, one of the largest portal sites in Korea, started an online fundraising campaign, Happy Bean, for the victims. On the third day of the campaign, about 130,000 people donated approximately KRW 500 million out of KRW 800 million goal.
Another portal site, Daum, initiated an online donation service as well. Known as ‘Hope,’ the campaign ends on May 17. As of May 3, roughly 70,000 people took part and collected a total of KRW 340 million. For every hopeful comment they post on the campaign page, netizens donate KRW 100. In addition, Daum is working with various SNS platforms such as MyPeople, Kakaotalk, and Facebook to draw more people to join the effort.