tragedy in seoul

last week, a young guy by the name of Bill Kapoun was badly injured in a fire in his apartment in Seoul. He suffered 3rd degree burns to 70% of his body. As a part-time employee, Bill didn't have any insurance here in Korea. His medical bills are astronomical. And there is also some discussion that his girlfriend may have died in the fire, though I can't confirm that information.

I just received this email on Couchsurfing. com, and I wanted to post it here for folks to read. Though many of you may be reading this from afar, if you feel inspired to help, you can donate at: www.billkapoun.com.

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As you may be aware, about two weeks ago an ESL teacher in South Korea was severely injured in a fire in Seoul.

William Kapoun, 26, had been teaching part-time at Bulam Elementary School in Northern Seoul. On February 24th, a fire broke out in his apartment, and he was severely injured with third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body. Compounding the seriousness of his situation, William was not covered by a health insurance policy. There are a variety of estimates regarding what the final tally will be for his treatment and recovery but none of them are below 100,000 USD.

His plight has made the front page of the Korea Times, and there is a campaign to raise money to help his family cover the costs of his medical care. We encourage you to give what you can and help Bill and his family through this very difficult time. You can read the article in the Korea Times online (www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/03/117_20066.html) and in the university paper from Bill’s Alma Matter, Indiana University (www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=49553&comview=1).

For updates on his status, we suggest visiting the Save Bill Kapoun! Facebook page (www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8730028742#) and if you don’t have a Facebook account the updates are also in Blogspot (savebillkapoun.blogspot.com/). Please be aware that there are graphic pictures on both of these sites.

There is information on both of those pages regarding how to donate if you are currently in Korea but if you would like to donate online please visit this page - www.billkapoun.com/.