he Big Issue is a periodical publication that contains informational articles and feature stories covering diverse issues. The unique thing about this magazine is that it is sold by homeless vendors on the streets. It delivers not only worth-thinking topics and issues to the readers but also it helps those who lost their jobs and homes to stand on their own feet with the money earned from selling the magazine. “They are working, not begging” is written on the official webpage. 

Origin of the magazine
-UK and SPREADED WORLDWIDE
It was in the U.K. where the magazine was firstly launched in 1991. Since then, thousands of people, who got left behind in this capitalist society and lost everything including homes and jobs, have been helped by the magazine. The Big Issue made them to dream of new life out of hard and cold streets. The Big Issue finally landed in Korea in 2010 for the purpose of helping out vulnerable people. It has already been four years since the kind publication landed in Korea.

How does it help homeless people?
The Big Issue costs 5,000 won, and 2,500 won goes to the vendor. Only the people who’ve lost home and everything can work as a vendor. After a two-week selling practice, they finally become a “vendor” and qualified to sell it on a designated street. If they keep working well up to six months, they can move into rental apartment. Job opportunities could be given to vendors who work over a year. Through this system, the kind magazine has given helping hand to about a hundred of people and is now stretching its helping boundary all over the nation, from Seoul to other regions.

 Why is it worth buying and reading?
 A common misunderstanding about the magazine is that the contents in it are less informational, or even poorer, than the contents of other newspapers and magazines. The prejudice against it makes people reluctant to buy it. Even though people buy it, they do so not out of curiosity about what’s inside it, but to be a good and kind person and as “mercy.” If you are one of them, well, you are absolutely looking down on the efforts of editors and vendors who are constantly struggling to make an in-depth and inspirational magazine comparable to any other ones. The Big Issue discusses priorities and important values in our society, which include environment, fair trade and so on.

Exclusive interviews with celebrities and renowned people are definitely worth reading. The magazine has already been known for special interviews with superstars including J.K. Rolling, Emma Watson, and so on. Since the interviews are done voluntarily, celebrities are more opened up when interviewed. And that makes The Big Issue more special than others.

Not only celebrities, but also normal people like us can make a special contribution to it with our own unique expertise. Therefore, you can meet various forms of contents, from columns to cartoons or poems through this special magazine.

The recent article that I was highly impressed was about “Meok Bang”(a broadcast of people eating something really deliciously), about which I was making a documentary film at that time. It really helped me. The author analyzed this quite “weird” phenomenon of Meok Bang and that’s exactly what I was doing with my documentary. I gained various ideas and information from it and succeeded at making it.

Personally I feel The Big Issue is definitely a notable way of supporting needy people in that it doesn’t give them just money, but tries to teach them how to live for themselves. A vendor near my home always tell me “please be happy” whenever I bought the magazine from him, which is also what I want to tell him.