The May 18 Memorial Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 1994 to commemorate the 1980 Gwangju Uprising by continuing the Uprising’s spirit of struggle and solidarity and working towards peace and human rights throughout the world.

The Foundation carries out numerous projects in various fields, including organizing memorial events, establishing scholarships, fostering research, publishing materials, dispensing funds, building international solidarity, and awarding the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights.

The Gwangju Asian Human Rights Folk School has started since 2004. Till now, 147 people from 23 countries have participated in the Folk school. The aim of the Folk school is to introduce participants to Korean history and a variety of democratic movements in Korea including the Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980, through both theoretical and practical experiences.

This year, the Folk school will be held for 3 weeks: from 9 to 27 August, 2011.

The Folk School strives to contribute to the development of democracy and human rights through out Asia by hosting 20 invitees from all over the Asian countries, who have been working for human rights and peace organizations in their respective countries. The emphasis is on organizational partnership, so applicants endorsed by their organization will be given priority in the participants selection procedure. Applicants’ organizations should support their staff’s successful completion of the course from the Folk school by providing expenses for issuing visa and internal travel expenses aside from round trip airfare and accommodation which are provided by the Foundation for him/her.

The Folk School will select participants as below:

ㆍJunior Staff : 8 people (with 2-5 years of experience)

ㆍMiddle Management/Advisory : 8 people (with 5-15 years of experience)

ㆍSenior/Director : 4 people (with more than 15 years of experience)

Junior staff and Middle Management/Advisory will be put into groups at the beginning of the program. Each group will be assigned a topic and will deliver a presentation at the end for the educational session. They also are given the chance to present the activities of their organizations.

The lectures are divided middle management advisory and the junior staff, the foundation offers them separated courses which customized to each level.

Meanwhile, Senior/Director participants will deliver a lecture about human rights and democracy gained from their experiences and knowledge to the participants.

※ Completing the Folk school, the alumni will have an opportunity to apply for a scholarship at Master of Arts in Inter-Asia NGO Studies(MAINS) from the Graduate school of Sungkonghoe University. The Foundation has been supporting 3 alumni every year.

Applicants are advised to read the guidelines carefully. The Foundation will only consider applicants who successfully comply with a set of guidelines and rules.

Incomplete applications will not be considered (See the application form for more details).

Applicants should ensure that they have no potential visa problems. If an applicant is denied entry to Korea because of his/her personal matters which are not known to the Foundation, the Foundation does not take any responsibilities for the problems he/she faces.

If an applicant decides not to participate in the Folk school after being selected as a participants, the Foundation will not accept any applications from his/her organization for 3 years.

The May 18 Memorial Foundation will cover the following expenses during the programme:

l. Round trip airfare
2. Transportation expenses in Korea
3. Accommodation and food

The following expenses will NOT be covered:

l Internal transportation, including domestic flights in your country (for example, to the airport or to the embassy)
2 Visa fee and any other special taxes.

Please send your application to

518folkschool@gmail.com
Application deadline May 31, 2011

Download application here.