About Us

Hello, our names are Rob and Emma! We lived in South Korea for two years from 2018-2020. While we were there, we began volunteering at a local children’s home. We helped tutor students in English, donated Christmas gifts each year, and participated in seasonal events. We developed a close-knit relationship with the students and staff, and when it came time to move back to the United States, we wanted to find a way to keep the strong bond we had built and continue to help in some way. This was the inspiration for The Kkachi Foundation.

In Korean, “kkachi” is the word for Magpie, which represents good news in Korean legends and folk tales. To this day in Korea, magpie birds are symbols of good fortune, good news, and prosperity. We saw a lot of magpies during our time in Korea, and certainly felt that good news and good fortune followed us, so the magpie became the perfect symbol for our endeavor to pay it forward.

We started The Kkachi Foundation as a response to witnessing the challenges and disadvantages facing the kids at the children’s home. After learning the history of some of the children and how they ended up at the home, it became very clear that they face serious obstacles and trauma that most of us never had to overcome. Whether it’s emotional damage, educational disparity, self-doubt, lack of direction, a sense of feeling left behind, or any of the other issues they are dealing with, they are starting from a place far below most other kids in South Korea.

The kids receive amazing care at the children’s home and are well-loved by the staff there, but we believe that additional support, love and encouragement can do amazing things to help give them a brighter future.

Our primary mission is to expand the perspective of each and every child involved, and to help them dream bigger about what they can achieve in the future. The visitation program also provides the opportunity to practice English in a real-world setting, travel and experience a new culture during their key formative years, and give them something competitive to put on their college applications, all while creating lifelong memories.

Currently our program is partnered with Shinmyeong Children’s Home in Incheon, South Korea where we spent time volunteering. Our hope and goal is to grow this organization to work with numerous children’s homes across South Korea, and to help as many underprivileged children as we can.

The first visitation program took place in July of 2023, and it was an incredible success that impacted the kids in amazing ways. You can read more about it on our Trip Report page HERE.

About Us

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about The Kkachi Foundation, please feel free to send us a message.