Do you remember the
Q. Please introduce yourself briefly.
A. Hello. I am Dong-yeon Park, a volunteer who is currently a university student. Nice to meet you!
Q. What kinds of things do you like, Dong-yeon Saem?
A. I like having so much free time that I wonder “What shall I do today?” when I wake up in the morning, the pork in kimchi stew, and, lastly, being helpful to other people.
Q. What led you to start your (volunteer) work at MAP?
A. What led me to start was a sense of “usefulness”. While volunteering as an interpreter at MAP’s “Human Library”, I really felt that “I am being helpful in this place!” I may be jumping to conclusions, but after I relayed the human book’s story to the participants, I had the impression that their thinking had changed by the end of the event compared with the beginning. So I became interested in MAP as an organization, applied because I wanted to know more, and now I am deeply immersed in it.
Q. What kind of work do you do at MAP?
A. My task is producing health-related card news. MAP uploads information that is useful to refugees, such as health checkups for infants and young children and health insurance, in an easy-to-read card news format. Because refugees are not familiar with Korean, it is very common for them not to know where they can get vaccinations or how health insurance premiums are calculated. So I gather the information that refugees are usually curious about and make card news in four languages (Korean, English, Arabic and French), which is uploaded to the MAP Facebook page every one to two weeks.
I have also had the experience of being sick abroad, and being in an unfamiliar place where nobody knows you makes it several times harder. That is why I put my effort into making card news, hoping that refugees will know health information thoroughly.
Q. Is there a scene that stands out most from your time at MAP?
A. I once took on the task of translating a refugee’s story, and I felt my hair stand on end. I cannot share the details, but I was shocked when I read their written account of the journey they made to reach Korea with such hardship. I think I usually had a somewhat disconnected idea of “refugees are refugees, and I am me”. But it was a shock to realize that their life had been as ordinary as mine, and that it had been completely changed in an instant and they had been given the name “refugee”. That became an opportunity for me to understand the refugee issue, at least a little, with my heart.
Q. What is the charm that is unique to MAP?
A. I think the charm that is unique to MAP is, above all, “warmth”. When I work together with the staff, I feel that the teachers who do the work of a hundred people on their own are amazing. But they do not only do their work well. MAP has a “warmth” that welcomes anyone who comes with a problem, at any time. If you are curious, please visit us in person!!
Q. Finally, is there anything you hope for from MAP or would like to say?
A. I think that MAP should ultimately be an NGO that has “not much to do” (in Korea only!). If refugees receive the support they need to adapt properly in Korea and our society welcomes them warmly, the MAP office would become quiet at some point, would it not? But for now there is a mountain of work to do, so I will work hard until all refugees are wearing happy smiles!