Over 5,500 Koreans volunteer for bereaved families of Jeju Air crash victims

Volunteers prepare food for bereaved families of Jeju Air plane crash victims at Muan International Airport, Saturday. Yonhap By Lee Hae-rin More than 5,500 Koreans from all over the country came to Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province to support the bereaved families of the Jeju Air plane crash victims, according to government officials on Monday. Since the tragic crash on Dec.

29 that claimed 179 lives out of 181 people onboard, 5,509 volunteers have participated in various activities, including traffic guidance, food service, environmental purification, disaster psychology counseling and disinfection service, the provincial government said. After the accident, a deaf couple from nearby Mokpo has been preparing 300 servings of coffee, citron tea and ginger tea every day to provide free sharing services at the airport. They display a notice board next to the menu that reads, "We don't hear sound.



Please speak with your hand gestures." Lim Kyung-hee, a writer who has been teaching about death with picture books for 30 years in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, wrote messages on 600 handkerchiefs with members of her book club and gave them to the bereaved families. A volunteer hands over a white flower, a gesture of condolences, to a mourner near a joint memorial altar at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province, Jan.

2. Yonhap Members of the Women’s Advanced Farmers’ Association Muan branch also made rice cake soup on the morning of the accident for firefighters and the victim's families. Six cast members, including chef Ahn Yu-seong and Lee Young-sook, of the Netflix cooking program "Culinary Class Wars" along with 30 others, including chefs from the Gwangju Chefs Association, also shared 700 servings of abalone porridge with the bereaved families.

A farmers’ association from Jeju Island sent 156 boxes of tangerines, while a bakery in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, mailed 79 boxes of frozen bread. The Seoul Korean Medicine Association and the Seoul Metropolitan Government sponsored 12,000 traditional medicines, and an anonymous citizen from Seoul sponsored 200 pieces of rice bread and blueberry jam. Volunteers prepare food for bereaved families and mourners of the Jeju Air plane crash victims at a joint memorial altar at Muan Sports Park in South Jeolla Province, Jan.

2. Yonhap "These volunteer activities, which shared the pain of bereaved families who were greatly saddened, show that volunteering is an important value of society, (and it is) beyond simple good deeds," South Jeolla Province Gov. Kim Young-rok said.

"We will provide careful support such as (providing information on) trauma counseling to restore stability as soon as possible.".