Hanmaeum empowers mothers in multicultural families with education

Hanmaeum's "Multicultural Mother School" aims to empower mothers in multicultural families by helping them complete elementary school courses in Korean to better support their children.

The nonprofit Hanmaeum is the recipient of the 15th Yumin Award in the society sector. The Yumin Awards were launched in 2010 to honor "Yumin" Hong Jin-ki, the late co-founder of the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily. [JOONGANG PHOTO]

Approximately 180,000 students from multicultural families currently makeup more than 3.5 percent of the nation's elementary, middle and high school population. With Korea experiencing a serious decline in birthrates, it is a critical task to integrate these students into society.

The nonprofit Hanmaeum educational volunteer group adopted a unique approach to address this issue, and has received this year's Yumin Award in the society sector.

The Yumin Awards were launched in 2010 to honor "Yumin" Hong Jin-ki, the late co-founder of the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily. The awards annually recognize three people or organizations who made significant contributions to the fields of culture and art, science and technology, as well as society.

Unlike organizations that directly teach children or assist adult immigrants, Hanmaeum's "Multicultural Mother School" aims to empower mothers in multicultural families by helping them complete Korean elementary school courses, which it says will equip mothers to teach their children and communicate better with teachers.

"An elementary student's education is half the school's role and half the family's role," said Choi Byoung-kyu, leader of Hanmaeum and a former KAIST professor. "The key [to good elementary school education] is whether a mother can help with the child's studies and communicate with teachers."

Choi opened the first Mother School in Daejeon in 2015 in collaboration with six active elementary school teachers. Since then, the program expanded to 24 locations nationwide and has 246 participants currently enrolled in the program. To date, 1,998 mothers have graduated from the program.

The Mother School offers 200 online lectures covering seven Korean elementary school subjects. Participants take 10 classes per week over 20 weeks, attend about 10 face-to-face sessions and take exams. After mastering the content, they spend four months guiding their children at home and writing progress reports. Graduates receive a diploma upon completing the 10-month program.

Each participant is provided with a tablet PC for online classes that are taught by former and current educators.

Funding for the program comes from individual donations, corporate sponsorships and local government project funds.

“Donations from over 560 individual members are used for developing educational materials and operating the foundation, while the remaining budget is covered by corporate sponsorships and local government project funds,” explained Yun Yong-ro, chairman of both the Hanmaeum nonprofit and Koramco REITs Management and Trust.

Hanmaeum also offers supplementary math and English lessons, as well as career mentoring, for middle and high school students from multicultural families in Korea. Around 40 university professors from universities conduct these classes online.

"Engineering professors are the most suitable for teaching high-level English and math problems, and they have enthusiastically participated," Yoon noted.

"When mothers start helping their children with their studies, the overall quality of life for the family often improves significantly," Choi said. "More support from local governments and the nation is essential [to help multicultural families]."

BY CHOI HYEON-CHUL [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]