Hello!
This is Migration to Asia Peace (MAP) :)
Cold wind is already seeping in, and it is December.
How is everyone doing?
MAP
took part in
the 2025 Mind Run Festival
on November 16!
The Mental Health Advancement for Refugees in Korea (MHARK) is a consortium
established in 2024 to strengthen
Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) for refugees and other forcibly displaced people.
On that day, MAP took part as a member organization of the Mental Health Advancement for Refugees in Korea (MHARK).
Together with the other MHARK member organizations, as an extension of our work to strengthen refugees’ capacities and advocate for their rights,
we wanted to create a time to run with participants, operate a booth and share our hearts with one another.
Shall we go and see the stories from the scene that day together?
RUN FOR COMPASSION! RUN FOR HEALING!
At this Mind Run, MAP ran together with refugees!
Participants chose either the 5 km or the 10 km course and took part according to their own goals.
In particular, MAP prepared very hard, even arranging times before the Mind Run to practice running together,
and as a result everyone who took part that day finished the race, a meaningful moment!!
Booth introduction: Artist Nadileek, finding hope in despair
Artist Nadileek was born in Horlivka, a coal-mining city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine,
and has lived in Korea for six years now under humanitarian status.
In 2014, because of the war, the artist’s hometown collapsed in an instant.
Even so, in order to live, Nadileek stood up again.
Having once worked as an interior designer,
Nadileek now makes picture books and draws comics that hold life stories.
The artist wants to share their story through drawings.
At the booth that day, 21 of Nadileek’s illustrations were exhibited.
The works, which express a journey of finding hope even in despair, are also the artist’s own story.
Through an exhibition that holds the stories of people who lost their homes but kept moving toward the light to the end, the artist hopes to share comfort and hope.
From the sticker keywords
Visitors to the booth chose four stickers from 20 keywords on the table
that they thought are needed on a refugee’s journey, and then viewed the exhibition.
After viewing, they went on to place the keyword stickers they had first chosen on the world map at the center of the booth.
Through the exhibition and activities at the booth, participants could feel the refugee issue as their own and empathize with refugees’ pain.
It was a very meaningful time in which everyone could think together about what the minimum support needed on a refugee’s journey is!
Sharing hope: gifts of thanks from the heart
Small gifts of thanks were also prepared for the participants who joined the activities.
After finishing the activities, participants peeled off the stickers they had placed on the map and, when they brought the “keyword selection sheet” to the operating booth,
they could take part in a gift draw.
To repay the precious hearts of everyone who took part, a variety of gifts such as power banks, air fresheners and badges were prepared.
Though it was a short time, we wanted to share the moment in which each person’s choices and heart led to a small gift.
This Mind Run activity was a precious time in which MAP, participants and refugees were all connected together.
It was my first time taking part in a marathon, and I was so happy to do it with refugees. I think I could run to the end because we were together, over a distance I would normally never have finished. Besides simply running, I also had the precious opportunity to help run the refugee-related booth at the event site, and through this I could share refugee issues up close with many citizens. If the Mind Run is held again next year, I will definitely take part!!
From a MAP volunteer’s review
Looking back at the Mind Run Festival, it was a day that felt truly warm and kind. Since that day I have started walking for at least 30 minutes every day again. Thanks to that, I found again the desire to keep exercising regularly.
From a MAP volunteer’s review
Like each step that continued in the Mind Run,
MAP will keep walking the path with refugees.
Please keep watching over us!
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