Four international workcamps on the islands of Geomundo and Geumodo ran from June to September 2026, built around beach clean-ups, village murals and meals shared with residents.
Between June and September 2026, four international workcamps took place on Geomundo and Geumodo, two islands that belong to the city of Yeosu in Jeollanam-do. Ninety-two young people from 25 countries took part. The 2026 Korea Workcamp season ended with its last camp in September.
Participants lived together on the islands, met residents and worked on projects for the villages. The work included plogging along the beaches and collecting marine litter, improving village spaces, painting murals, upcycling, a village art project made from marine waste and exchange with local schools. At an event called Global Table, volunteers prepared food from their home countries and shared it with residents while introducing their cultures.
A participant in the camp coded IWO-61 Geomundo, who was visiting Korea for the first time, said it was meaningful to live alongside a local community and contribute to it directly, instead of seeing the country only as a tourist. A participant in IWO-72 Geomundo described the work this way: "What we did on Geomundo was not grand construction or large-scale development. It began with small actions: cleaning the shore together, tending village spaces and sharing food with residents. What struck me was that those small actions brought people together, got them telling each other their stories and created interest in the place."
A participant in IWO-91 who has joined two workcamps in Korea said that even when the activities were similar, "the people I was with, the conversations we had and the moments that stayed with me were different."
The 2026 camps were hosted by Yeosu City and organized by the International Workcamp Organization, an affiliate of Better World. Island workcamps were also held the summer before. In 2025, Geomundo hosted Korea Workcamps including one from 10 to 17 August, when volunteers left upcycled works made from marine litter around the village and invited residents to a meal of traditional dishes from 13 countries. In July 2025, 18 young people from eight countries joined a workcamp on Dochodo, an island in Sinan County, where they cleaned beaches and delivered lunch boxes to elderly residents living alone.
