What's Coming Up In The Divisions?

We have a lot coming up in the next little while around the school … see below for what is happening in your division!

ALL Divisions

T-shirt and hoodie sales have got off to a great start and will continue this coming week. T-shirts - 15,000 won 

Hoodies   30,000 won 

BOTH for just 40,000 won!

For sales please see

BS - Janet Hahm

ES - Chris Bickel

MS - Jo Dunbar

HS - Chuck Krugler

Sham O' Grams: Students can send messages and a chocolate to their friends for just 2,000.00 Won. Available through your classroom/homeroom teacher and Mrs Koh.  For more details click HERE!

Don't forget the fabulous silent auction happening down in the coffee shop … get down there and bid!  Click HERE for more details …

British School

The BS will continue " Loose Loot for Lungs" this week. Students are encouraged to bring along any loose coins to add to their class collection. The year level with the most money raised will get to enjoy a free dress!

Elementary School

ES Dongdaewon Fair

Thursday 6th March - 12.45 - 2.45pm

Classes are well underway planning for the ES Dongdaewon fair.  Many children are working hard to earn their spending money … remember all profits buy medicine for our patients.  Work hard .. have fun and save a life!

Middle School

Mohawks for Medicine

This year … 

we bring you not one … 

but TWO fabulous chances to 

style a rockin' mohawk!

Houses are competing for the chance to provide the styling team and

TWO  FREE  DRESS days!

Get your money and your votes in!

Voting CLOSES March 11th.  

March 17th is styling day! 

Into The Woods - Concessions

If you are coming to the play Friday or Saturday … stock up on food at our concession store.  Friday night is pizza and donuts.

Saturday night will be soup, bread and desserts!
(Saturdays's goodies will be homemade by some pretty excellent cooks - DON'T miss out!!)

Shamograms On Sale Now!

2,000 won each

Delivered March 17th - St Patrick's Day!

On sale: February 19 – March 10

(Chocolate generously donated by:BS Parent Mr Toft:  CEO of Nestle' Korea)



Click the play button above for a special message direct from our Leprechaun!

What is a Sham O’ Gram?  An Irish message of luck and love! The Sham O’ Gram includes a delicious chocolate treat and a personalized message from YOU!

Why should I send one?  To spread ‘Luck O’ the Irish’ and raise money to buy care packages to ease the suffering of patients in the SFS sponsored TB Care Center in Dongdaewon, North Korea.  We CAN save lives.

To whom should I send one?  Anyone at SFS! Family, brothers, sisters, friends, teachers, staff …….

How do I order?  Please use the green coupons (brought home by BS, ES, MS, NIK and DCC students; available from homeroom teachers in the HS).  Fill in the blanks for "to", "from", "class", and circle which division (MS use advisory and HS use homeroom class).  Parents, please help younger children write clearly so that we can read it!

Please cut each out each coupon - the leprechauns are too busy to do this!

Place completed Sham o' grams (with 2000 won for each coupon) into an envelope (feel free to reuse/recycle old envelopes) and send to school with your child by March 10th.  Please address envelopes to:

BS:  Mrs Gray      ES: Mrs Neff     MS:  Mr Knox     HS:  Ms. Drummond     

NIK:  Mrs Myong      DCC (Day Care Centre) - Mrs Han

NB:  You can get extra coupons from your child's class teacher or the divisional secretaries, so please do not make your own.

Thank you!

Go on … save a life!

Patients Exiting the MDR Program

We have some great news to report from the most recent fall visit.  Most of our patients are doing really well.  Many have graduated after 18 months of MDR treatment.  This is fantastic.  When we first were involved with Dongdaewon, patients were often much longer term.  The MDR program, along with technology such as the Genex machine is helping our patients get the right medication for their needs quickly.

Graduation day is one of mixed emotions.  Treatment for TB is harsh and many of the patients feel very ill from their medication and the disease.  It takes a lot of courage to keep taking medication that makes you feel sick.  On graduation day, patients are relieved to be done with treatment, very happy to be cured and know they have another chance at life.  Often, many of them are scared to go, as they worry about what will happen if they get TB again.  They know that very few patients are lucky enough to get treatment and there is no guarantee they will have access to treatment if they get sick again.  It is also one of mixed emotions, because some patients will be discontinuing treatment due to a lack of response and no cure available for them.

Lets meet our graduating patients.  For privacy, we need to protect their names, but if you want to read the spring report with those details, feel to ask one of the DDW reps to access it for you.  If you click the initials below each picture, you can see earlier pictures of our patients and see how they were a year or so ago.

G.C.

G.C has been enrolled in the MDR program since the fall of 2011.  He was thrilled to graduate in Spring 2013 and thanks you all for his newfound health.

S.J

S.J was enrolled in the spring of 2011.  He graduated treatment in Spring 2013 and was excited to be able to return home to his family and loved ones.

 C.O.

C.O. first caught TB in 2008 when she was only 23.  She failed two rounds of treatment before being picked up onto the MDR program by Eugene Bell.  We have been supporting C.O  since she started treatment in April 2012.  She was thrilled to be cured of MDR and is able to return home to her parents.  She loves music and according to the other patients, dances well!  She will be enjoying her ability to engage in both with her new health.

J.D.

J D has also been in treatment since April 2012.  He loves to read and says that he is grateful for the support shown to him from the SFS students and our community.  He is grateful for a new chance at life with his wife and 8 year old daughter.  

C.J.

CJ is cured!  He has fought hard to be well and has been in treatment for MDR since fall, 2010.  As well as being treated, he has stepped up in a role as team leader for other patients, helping ensure that they stay on their medication regime.  CJ is a farmer with two daughters.  Graduation was an incredible day for him.  He is grateful for the medicine and support from the SFS community and is hoping to stay well.

A.H.

A.H has been in treatment since the fall of 2011.  He was excited to be returning home to his wife and job as a lab tech.  He is grateful that his wife did not catch MDR from him and thankful for his gift of health.

G.S.

G.S. has had a long fight with TB.  She failed treatment in 2006 and 2008.  In 2008, her health was so bad that she thought she was dying.  G.S has been in treatment since Spring 2012 and is cured of her MDR.  Your seeds of generosity and love provided her medicine and gave her back her health.  She is most excited to reunited with her 22 year old daughter (who is a nurse) and 19 year old son.  Thank you.

H.M.

H.M. was overjoyed to be cured of MDR TB.  He started treatment in the Spring of 2012 and was thrilled to graduate in the fall on 2013.  We wish him all the best as he rejoins his loved ones.

H.C. 

H.C. has been in treatment since the Spring of 2012.  He was overjoyed to be among the graduating patients this past fall and is grateful for the medicine you provided to cure his TB.

K.O

K.O has been in treatment since the fall of 2011 and is so thrilled to finally be cured.  She is looking forward to time with her family and a new chance at a healthy life.

M.Y.

We don't have an updated photo for M.Y.  but apparently she was looking great at the graduation ceremony.  M.Y. was excited to return home to her husband and 7 year old daughter, whom she has not seen for over a year.  She loves to dance traditional Korean dances and is looking forward to being able to do this once more with her newfound health.  She is grateful for the medicine that the school provided.

Sad News For Some of Our Patients
One of the sad parts of a clinic visit is seeing the medicine boxes left from patients who have died or are having to discontinue the program due to a lack of response to medication, which means they have XDR TB, for which there is no cure.  Unfortunately, since we last visited, several of our patients have passed away.  Both of them were responding well to TB treatment, but sometimes TB takes such a terrible toll on their health that they die from associated complications.  Please pray for the families of these patients, that they would find comfort in their times of grief.

K.J

K.J. passed away before the last Spring visit.  He had been responding well to treatment, but TB had just taken too big a toll on his health.  Although it is sad that he has passed away, he passed on having hope for a cure and knowing that he was cared about.

O.C.

Sadly, O.C. also passed away before the last Spring visit.  Like K.J. he had also been responding well to treatment, but had just too many other complications.  Never underestimate the power of hope that medicine provides for our patients - the fact that they are getting treatment and that you send them medicine is a huge thing for them.

Silent Auction

Get yourself down to the SFS coffeeshop and check out the silent auction … we have some awesome things up for grabs this year … art, food, furniture, fashion, quilts, cosmetics … something for everyone.  Bids can be placed in the book under the flat screen TV.

Art:
We have several stunning hand painted pieces, including an aboriginal dot painting.

Food
Something for everyone - from a pancake breakfast for your class, to a couple of Swanson brunches (these went lightning fast last year - Patti is a trained chef and her brunches are not to be missed), stunning cakes from the Roddicks, a gourmet 5 course Italian dinner  … if you are a food lover, we have just the things for you!

Coffee
Are you addicted to your morning coffee?  Have you seen those nifty little Nespresso machines?  We have one up for auction … but wait!  There's more!  Not only will you get a fabulous Nespresso machine, but also 100 pods to feed it with and a couple of lovely cappuccino cups to enjoy it in!  Get in fast … this one won't last!

Furniture
We have some awesome pieces of furniture.  A couple of hand painted Qing dynasty replica pieces (including a lovely piece for the corner … and two very special chests.  You can check the hand painted pieces out down outside the coffee shop.

Unfortunately, we have not got the chests here at school due to their high value, but check the photos out below and have a chat to Kim Lee if you are interested in them.  There is a great versatile coffee table that can be placed in different formations on offer as well.

Fashion
Some stunning, unique tied died scarves, made by our local students.

Quilts
Quilts have become part of our Dongdaewon tradition - each year for the past few years, we have been incredibly blessed to have donated handmade quilts to auction.  This year, we have several beautiful quilts from two different quilters.  They are stunning - check them out and put in a bid!

Cosmetics
We also have several Estee Lauder collections on offer too - your chance to get some wonderful quality skin care at a bargain price!

So there you have it … lots on offer - all proceeds buy medicine for our TB patients and you get something wonderful in return.  Please come by and support the auction.  We wish to thank our very generous parents, faculty and students for their donations.

THE AUCTION CLOSES MARCH 17TH

Spring 2013 Trip Report from Jenny James

Seoul Foreign School and the Eugene Bell Foundation have partnered for 15 years to help the people of North Korea in their fight against the preventable and treatable disease, tuberculosis. The contributions that our school has made over these years has transformed the speed by which TB patients can be diagnosed and treated by purchasing portable x-ray machines, Genx-X sputum culture analyzers, nutrition packs and of course, the 6 month to 3 year supply of life-saving medication needed for each patient.  The Eugene Bell Foundation’s biannual trips to the South and North Pyongan provinces, Pyongyang and Nampo cities and surrounding regions of North Korea constitutes the care for approximately one-third of the TB patients in the entire country. Seoul Foreign students, staff and families have been integral, life-saving friends to our northern neighbours.

As chairperson of the 2013 Dongdaewon Fundraising Campaign, I was privileged enough to accompany the Eugene Bell delegation in April of 2013 as the SFS donor representative. It was a tense time politically during the preparation for our trip, with many of the visas for non-profit aid organizations being revoked and even some countries’ embassy personnel in North Korea, leaving the country over the threat of war. However, because of the excellent relationship that Eugene Bell, and more specifically Dr. Stephen Linton and his teams, have fostered over the past years, ours was the only humanitarian group allowed into the country.

During the 2-week trip, we often spent one day traveling to the TB clinic location, setting up the clinic stations, registering and collecting samples from patients and then waiting for diagnosis from the doctors so we could distribute the medicine. The following day we would rest. It was on those rest days that I would think about the people struggling with TB on a daily basis. It was cold outside, with frigid winds and although our team was housed in a luxurious guesthouse, I knew the patients struggling with this disease had a much harder fight against the elements and their condition. Some of the patients, already registered in the program, were housed at the clinic itself, and therefore, only needed to wake up and wait the long hours for information about their prognosis.

However, for possible new patients, men and women who had symptoms of TB and needed to be diagnosed, many of them would walk long distances in hopes of becoming a registered patient and getting the proper medication. After arriving early in the morning, they would wait all day, crouching in hopeful anticipation that someone might ease their fears of being sick, or begin treating the dreaded disease they were suspected to have.

But for a few, at each TB clinic, the long struggle was won; if patients had responded to the medicine and they had remained strong and consistent during their treatment, the good news that they had fought back TB and were now cured could be shared with them! I have never experienced a more sincere and relieved smile on the face of any person, as I have during these patients’ “graduation” ceremonies. For some, this battle lasted just a year, but for others it continues for many years, without the guarantee of winning the fight.

This is why it is so important that we remain in the battle alongside these brave men and women. We have the comforts of shelter, healthy food and water, warmth on cold nights and excellent medical care just down the street. But our neighbors to the north are fighting disease, political strife, and a lack of resources the South Korean side of the peninsula hasn’t seen in 50 years. Jesus said that all the Law and the Prophets’ instructions hung on two commands: To love God with all we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40).  I can’t imagine a better way to teach this to our children, and ourselves, than partnering in the Dongdaewon Campaign each year. May you know of your blessings, be thankful for them, and anxious to share those with all who are in need. Thank-you for your generosity of spirit and resources.

Dongdaewon 2014 Kicks Off Today!

Today is the launch of our annual Dongdaewon fundraising campaign.  The next four and a half weeks will be a flurry of activity as we seek to raise money to buy medicine for our MDR TB patients in North Korea.  We have seen some awesome progress in our patients this past year and we will be sharing some updates on the blog, so check back often.


Check out the video from our Hearts to Serve assembly and start thinking about what you can do to get involved.  Whilst buying a caramel apple, or attending a cooking class might not seem like a lot, remember this:

Sow a seed

Change a life!