To commemorate the 100th anniversary of YWCA Korea, “Heungcheongmangcheong”, a young-oriented contest, was launched in April of this year to support the young people to thrive. In this context, ‘Heungcheongmangcheong’ means “Whether thriving or struggling, still young people”. We received a total of 50 project proposals addressing various prevalent societal issues from the young people’s perspective, and 13 teams were selected. Each team received support of up to 9 million KRW for project expenses aimed at solving social problems, diligently pursuing self-set goals over a period of six months.
In order to share their experience in growth, the ‘Heungcheongmangcheong Growth Sharing Event’ took place on December 22nd at YWCA Korea office. In the first part of the sharing event, two teams won the grand awards and the other two teams won the excellence awards. The ‘Local Independent Bookstore Digital Transformation Project – Intangible Library’ and ‘Save Me, Save Us’ teams won the grand awards while the excellence awards were granted to the ‘BonoBo Project’ and ‘Janchi: yeodam[1]’.
Eun-young cho, Vice President of the national YWCA Korea, stated that “there was a significant change in how young people perceive society through ‘Heungcheongmangcheong’. They carried out projects initiatively and achieved meaningful results. Among the 13 teams, some could not complete the project, but I think it was also an asset that they gained, the strength to try again through failure.”.
You can find the results videos of each team on the YWCA Korea YouTube channel. The videos show stories of how much challenge each team went through the past six months, why they initiated these projects, what they accomplished, and what remains for them. As ‘Heungcheongmangcheong’ continues into 2023, it is hoped that the efforts of young people to solve the world’s problems persist and thrive.
[1] It means ‘feast: digression’.
?? YWCA Korea Blog: https://blog.naver.com/ywcamail/222968155106
? YWCA Korea YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBwod6qgK7PXZUyKRtDwippzdXkNrTBFU
