Workers carry out flood recovery operations at Seoho Traditional Market in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province. [Tongyeong City Hall]
Workers carry out flood recovery operations at Seoho Traditional Market in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province. [Tongyeong City Hall]

An emergency fundraising campaign under South Korea's hometown-love donation scheme has been launched for Tongyeong, a city in South Gyeongsang Province that was battered by 671.9 millimeters of rain over the three-day Liberation Day holiday weekend.

Gongam Manse, the social enterprise behind Weegive — a private platform for the hometown-love donation program — said Monday it was opening an emergency drive for Tongyeong starting that day.

The campaign was prompted by the scale and urgency of the damage, which included homes buried by landslides and boats swept onto roads by coastal flooding.

Weegive ran a similar emergency drive in March last year for Yeongdeok-gun, Uiseong-gun and Yeongyang-gun in North Gyeongsang Province. In Yeongdeok-gun alone, more than 4,300 people donated within two days of the campaign's launch, raising 405.3 million won ($286,000), with total contributions reaching about 1 billion won over two months.

At the time, the Ministry of Interior and Safety eased requirements to help affected local governments raise funds quickly, allowing designated donation projects to begin with a simple report to local councils rather than requiring prior approval. Weegive visited evacuation centers and villages to assess what supplies were needed — blankets, towels, spare clothing, underwear and wet wipes — and kept donors updated through its fundraising page.

After the drive closed, Weegive partnered with leisure platform Yeogieoddae to run a participation-point event tied to the hometown-love donation program, aimed at boosting tourism and consumer spending in the five areas designated as special disaster zones: Andong, Yeongdeok, Uiseong, Cheongsong and Yeongyang.

"In a disaster, speed matters more than scale," a Weegive official said. "The hometown-love donation program lets citizens across the country directly designate the affected area they want to support, making it the fastest private channel for raising disaster relief funds." The official added that the company intended to go beyond fundraising to include on-site verification and recovery support.


thlee@heraldcorp.com