Fourteen Interactors are among the 350 passengers who are dead or missing and presumed dead after a ferry capsized and sank on 16 April during a routine trip off the coast of South Korea. Six fellow Interact club members were rescued.

Of the 476 passengers and crew on board the 7,000 ton ferry, 339 were high school students and teachers from the Ansan Danwon High School, where the 30-member Interact club is based. The students were on an outing to the southern island of Jeju.

Rotary Districts 3750 and 3610 in South Korea are working with local Rotary clubs to provide volunteer services and support to victims’ families. Rotary Korea magazine is also planning a memorial event to commemorate Interactors who lost their lives.

Rotary began in Korea with the Rotary Club of Gyeongseong in 1927. Today there are 1,580 Rotary clubs and 708 Interact clubs.