Rainbow Teen Safe Space

 Greetings from Dding Dong!

I am writing you today to share some exciting news and updates about our work between July and October.

Rainbow Flying Start to form support networks for queer youths in Korea

Dding Dong had visited Daegu in summer as many of you would remember from our last newsletter. This time, we visited three metropolitan cities (Incheon, Busan, and Gwangju) to work with the local communities for the Rainvow Flying Start program. In particular, our session in Busan was very special and invigorating as many people came to the event in spite of the typhoon.

Participants of the program included those who work for youth organizations, counsellors for teenagers, and students majoring in youth studies and counseling. Our training session was titled “How should we meet LGBTIQ youths?” and dealt with practical subjects, such as how to work with teenage LGBTIQ clients as an ally; how to counsel parents who want to “fix” their kid’s identity; and common biases and prejudices against LGBTIQs that counselors might have.

Rainbow Navigation T_Go for trans and non-binary youths

Rainbow Navigation T_Go is our unique program to help young trans and non-binary people struggling with issues of gender identity and gender expression. With this program, we help their journeys to find themselves, freed from the binary gender framework. For the past three months, we met on Satursdays, every two or three week to:

1) share each other’s experiences and support

2) meet with transgender adults

3) get medical and legal information they need for transitioning with the assistance of medical doctors and doctors in law.

The most popular session was the one in which they met and talked with adult transgender professionals. Our wonderful guests shared with us their experience of job searching, nurturing personal relationships with their parents, friend, and colleagues as a transgender individual, and coming out stories.  We had ten participants in total for this program.

 We also provided our regular counseling and crisis support service as usual. 

July: face-to-face counseling (22); Phone counseling (5); online counseling (1); others (1) 

        We met with 29 clients in total.

August: face-to-face counseling (23); Phone counseling (10); online counseling (0); others (3) 

        We met with 36 clients in total.

September: face-to-face counseling (14); Phone counseling (13); online counseling (3); others (0) 

       We met with 30 clients in total.

It is noteworthy that many of our clients discussed with us about mental health, family conflict, performance at school, and career. 

Monitoring Dding Dong’s organizational culture and strengthening our capacity for counseling and crisis support

On September 17, the Dding Dong office and volunteers (a.k.a. Dding-ga Dding-ga) had an education session on youth/LGBTIQ prostitution. Chacha from “E-LOOM Action for Anti-Prostitution and Human Rights” gave a lecture titled “LGBTIQ prostitution: The structure of prostitution, ‘minority prostitution,’ and support for LGBTIQ youths in prostitution industry.” The session helped us to learn about the problems of the current Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles from Sexual Abuse.” It was also a great opportunity to ponder what Dding Dong needs to understand and consider in order to provide better counseling and crisis support. 

Please do remember that Dding Dong can work thanks to you--our beloved donors and Global Giving!

Stay in solidarity with us so that we can continue to meet and welcome more LGBTIQ youths!

Peace and Love,

-Edhi in DDing Dong-