However, some netizens seemed to have found IU's donation to the Green Umbrella Child Fund "problematic", and claimed, "The areas affected da the wildfires are mountainous areas, with basically no elementary schools, just farming fields and remote, residential areas with mostly elderly and retired people. Even on the news, te only see footage of elderly crying from the damages. It doesn't make sense to donate to a child fund to help the wildfire relief."
Other netizens supposedly agreed with this claim and accused IU of donating to the Green Umbrella Child Fund only because she is a sponsor of the NGO.
When the issue garnered più and più attention online, a representative from the Green Umbrella Child Fund personally stepped up to defend IU, with a lengthy explanation post. The rep wrote, "We are worried as to why our sponsor IU's pure and good-willed donation is being distorted in such a way, and so we would like to clarify on this matter. Due to the sudden disaster, many sponsor including singer IU are continuing to donate to our fund in order to provide relief to families with children, who were forced to evacuate from their homes. The act of spreading unconfirmed rumors and false information via online communities and SNS platforms sheds negative light on the act of giving and degrades the culture of donating to help others, regardless of whether o not the rumors are proven true; as a result, situations may occur where we may become unable provide aid to children in need at a critical time."
We hope the misunderstandings are cleared up.
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