2024 Toronto Korean Festival: Hope Letter Campaign
This summer, Good Neighbours Canada introduced our Hope Letter Campaign at the famous Toronto Korean Festival! The Hope Letter campaign is a Good Neighbours’ contest to stimulate global citizenship and promote education, and this event marks the first space in which we’ve held this advocacy program in 2024.
The Toronto Korean Festival (TKF) is a cultural event in Toronto that celebrates the growth of Korean culture. It is the largest festival of its kind, featuring food vendors, traditional performances, and K-Pop events. This was the perfect opportunity for our international charity to establish a connection with Canadians, as our roots are in South Korea.
Hope Letter Campaign 2024: Mbana and Kenzo
Good Neighbours Canada was excited to show attendees the story of Mbana and Kenzo (which can be seen on our YouTube channel here). The story is about a girl named Mbana who lives with her little brother Kenzo, who is six years old. Regrettably, Kenzo suffers from a tropical bacterial alienation disease known as Buruli ulcer, which may necessitate the amputation of his leg. Now, the only thing they can do is rely on folk remedies with herbs.
Mbana works in a field with her grandfather, burning weeds that have grown too tall and planting peanuts to make a living. Even though the smoke hurts her eyes, she is still hopeful that she can find more ways to make money to support her brothers and herself. Mbana hopes that Kenzo’s legs get better quickly so that he can go to school.
Early detection can readily treat Kenzo’s Buruli ulcer, but poverty prevents him from accessing early treatment; this condition has crushed Mbana and her brothers’ dreams. But with letters of hope and support, Mbana and Kenzo can become more optimistic about life. It was a wonderful opportunity to educate about different cultures and become aware of difficulties other people face around the world.
Participants wrote a message or made an artwork to encourage and support Mbana, Kenzo, and their siblings, and received participation awards and an entry into a prize draw. The winning letters, under two contests for ‘most inspirational letter’ and ‘most inspirational drawing’, will be sent to the children in our case study, who are now sponsored children supported by Good Neighbours.
Our visitors also had extra chances to participate, including a Lucky Wheel giveaway for top Goods4Causes products, Bruce the Moose, cashmere sweaters, and bookmarks, and the opportunity to shop directly from our Goods4Causes social enterprise.
We thank our team members Elizabeth Francisco, Sasiaro Nyam and Kidist Worku, who had an amazing time raising awareness about Good Neighbours’ work, especially the Hope Letter campaign. We look forward to returning for the 2025 Toronto Korean Festival season to share our global work with more people!
