Actors Shin Hyun-joon and Bae Doo-na were sent earlier this summer to do some charity work abroad via cable channel tvN’s world special “LOVE” (their phrasing) documentary program. I’d mentioned this before Bae Doo-na set off for Nepal, but now that she’s gone there and back, we can see for ourselves what the trip entailed.
Shin’s trip was taken back in July to a small village in Malaysia, where he stayed a week, accompanied by photographer Yang Hyun-mo. Bae, on the other hand, made her trip in August to Lele, a village in Nepal, in conjunction with the Good Neighbors International program. She was also there a week with a photographer to document the events as she aided the family of a 7-year-old girl who worked manual labor to earn money for her family.
Shin Hyun-joon’s segment aired on September 6, while Bae Doo-na’s will be featured on the 20th.
Bada donates a kiss in the name of the “Love’s Magic Kiss Relay” campaign on August 10 in Seoul’s Myungdong district.
The campaign features 11 female stars (also Hyori, Seo In-young, Sohn Tae-young, Solbi, Hwangbo, Shin Bong-seon, Wang Bit-na, Ahn Hye-kyung, Ha Yumi, Choi Eun-kyung) donating their lipstick kisses (made on Scotch magic tape) to raise money for disaster recovery of the Taean region following the oil spill last year.
Bae Doo-na, last seen in 2007’s How to Meet a Perfect Neighbor, is heading to Nepal for some charity work as part of the Good Neighbors program.
From the UN Nepal site:
Good Neighbors International launched its work in Nepal in 2002 with the objective of child care and community development. It is an INGO based on Republic of South Korea with consultative status in UN ECOSOC (United Nation Economic and Social Council).
To this end, she left Korea on July 31 to spend the next seven days in the village of Lele in Kathmandu, Nepal. To capture the realities of village life and charity work, they were also accompanied by photographer Kwon Young-ho.
Bae Doo-na will be working to help the struggling livelihood and family of a 7-year-old girl, Somaya Nagarkoti, as well as visiting the girl’s school and delivering school supplies. Currently, Somaya and her two older sisters do mining work to help their family survive; Somaya spends most of their non-school time in the mines, while her sisters have long quit school (she earns approximately 50 cents for a day of work breaking rocks with a hammer). Despite her circumstances, Somaya reportedly has a lot of friends and dreams of becoming a doctor.
Not to let such a ratings opportunity pass them by, cable channel tvN will be broadcasting coverage of the trip in their World Special Love sometime in September. (The channel already aired the Ryu Seung-beom segment on May 1, wherein the actor traveled to Thailand, and the second segment in July with Shin Hyun-joon in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur.)
Actor-singer Lee Seung Gibroke a finger on the 23rd while filming his segment for the popular Happy Sunday variety program, and underwent surgery. Although he doesn’t think the injury is overly serious, he’ll most likely have stop his broadcast activities for the immediate future. Aw.
Actress and former Baby VOX popstarlet Yoon Eun Hye is singing for the first time in a long while since she left pop music to transition into a successful acting career. She lends her vocals to “I Love You,” the debut single for new rap duo Mighty Mouth (oops, not Mighty Mouse like I thought, which woulda been kinda more awesome) — but insists this does not indicate a return to her singer status.
After the recent massive oil spill, reports of local residents going so far as to commit suicide because of their troubles have reached a sympathetic Bada, who was moved by the people’s plight and is putting together a charity concert in the name of reviving the local economy of Mallipo Beach in western Korea.
Seems like Rain is in the news constantly for one reason or another — and now it’s because apparently the Chinese netizens are angry again. First it was over his participation in singing Samsung’s Olympics theme song — ’cause you know, the only people allowed to sing at any particular Olympics are the citizens of the country hosting it. Now they’re calling him “arrogant” because he turned down Chinese Olympics ambassador (and gold-medalist gymnast) Liu Xuan’s request for a song at an Olympics promotion press conference due to time constraints; they’re saying, “Liu Xuan was dishonored internationally” and “How long would it have taken to sing a few lines?” and “Koreans are impatient and give no leeway so they really seem rude often.” Ahh, nothing like the Olympics to foster discontent. Whatever happened to international harmony, fraternity, and the symbolic Olympic rings?
It’s common knowledge that actresses Han Ji Hye and Han Ye Seul are good friends — but who knew they’re also too good to mingle with the masses? Apparently the two go out clubbing — no drinks, just dancing — twice a year: once on each of their birthdays. Actor Lee Chun Hee recalled on a soon-to-air episode of Sang Sang Plusseeing the two at a club before they were famous, dancing together and ignoring any male attempts to approach them. Asked why, Han Ji Hye said that before their debuts, it was because “we had pride.” Afterward, it was because “we knew we were going to be actresses so we decided not to party with anyone else, just dance with the two of us.” Hm, I’m trying to figure out a way to interpret her answer as anything but bratty and stuck-up. Someone tell her pride and ego are different things.
“Moon Geun Young’s Influence”: Village children donate their spending money
A year ago, young actress and current university student Moon Geun Young made a donation of 300 million won (just over $320,000) to (re)build a children’s center in a small village in the remote location of Haenam (at the very southern tip of the Korean peninsula). She even paid an unannounced visit to their classrooms, to their surprise and delight.
This year (er, 2007), the children decided to take their cue from their big sis and came up with the idea — entirely on their own, the article points out — of donating their own money to an even needier cause than themselves. But as they are hardly rich themselves, they spent the past four months doing odd jobs and errands to scrimp up money to donate. On the 31st of December, the director of the children’s center took their money — saved in three unmatching piggy banks — to donate to a social welfare center.
The amount? 179,550 won, roughly $191.
The director explains:
“These children are mostly living in difficult conditions already, so the amount isn’t much. But they didn’t buy themselves things they wanted to eat, and saved this money, penny by penny. After they began saving, their lives have changed, feeling happiness at the thought that they can care after and help other people.”
The children’s center houses and schools roughly forty children of either parentless or single-parent families, and was in danger of closing its doors in 2006 when the building was sold. Moon Geun Young heard of the situation and donated the money not only to save the center but to build a new building and buy a school bus.
