Chungcheongnam-do

 Organized by Branch 3620 of Rotary International and Chungnam Province, the 3rd Global Multicultural Festival was held in Cheonan, Chungnam on April 23, 2011. The event was joined by about 3,000 people from around 700 international marriage families in 16 cities and guns of the province.

▲ Festival for families of international marriage is able to enjoy the unique culture of Korea and abroad, fun and informative to all festival participants. As globalization of Chungnam progresses more and more, various events and number of participants has increased.

The event was comprised of a wide variety of sessions and activities for international marriage families in Chungnam including the traditional Korean wedding ceremony, free medical check-up, invitation of the parents of foreign wives, grant of travel expenses to them, essay content in Korean, talent show, campaign to promote birth, and legal counseling for multicultural families.

Especially touching was the program that invited the parents of foreign wives, who had not seen their daughters married off to Korea due to difficult economic conditions, by Rotary International. There was joy and happiness once they met their daughters at the festival. About ten local hospitals provided free medical treatment at the event, which also offered a program to promote traditional Korean culture and experience traditional Korean foods.

Branch 3620 of Rotary International raised a subsidy of 20 million won and 130 million won donated by the members to hold the festival and offer free gifts to the participating multicultural families including television sets and refrigerators.

A member of Rotary International that took part in the preparation process said, “We held the festival based on the belief that the future of multicultural families should be brighter as they are one of the economic pillars of the nation. We are planning to expand the festival every year so that more multicultural families will join.”