Kimchi with Kindness is a student-led, IB-funded project where students make and deliver Kimchi to lonely elderly who live in Incheon. The project was approved and funded $3000 USD by the 2025 IBO global youth action fund.
Songdo is a smart city in the Incheon Province, also called, the Songdo International City. It is also where our school is located.
Songdo was built on 1,500 acres of land of artificial island off Incheon’s waterfront, on what used to be mudflats that fostered hundreds of fish, bird and shellfish species. With the loss of mudflats and waterfronts, many Incheon residents who relied on fishing for a living lost their stable source of income and had to leave the area. However, many remained in the Incheon area just outside of Songdo, creating the downtown areas down in the Dong-Gu area.
Now many of those who live in Dong-gu, the same people who have lost their jobs to industrialization, face economic hardships and rapid aging. Most of the seniors live alone, relying on coal briquettes for heat and donations for food. While the government has supplied them with material aid, what the senior citizens really need are warm human connections that show them love.
Students of Chadwick International have initiated many projects for the community including donating and delivering coal briquettes, winter clothing and supplies, and recently--making and donating kimchi.
We aim to continue this project into the future, making kimchi a reliable source of food and a source of human warmth for the elderly community in Dong-gu