Q1. Please give a brief self-introduction.
Hello! I am Park Hye-yeong of the CP Team. In the SCK program within the CP Team, which provides childcare cost support from Save the Children, I am in charge of nine children. I am studying in a social welfare department while also volunteering 🙂
Q2. Please share your motivation for applying to MAP.
In high school I first came to understand refugee issues properly, and I set myself the goal of “helping people who are not protected by their states.” I like people, so the lives of those who are not guaranteed even basic human rights came as a great shock to me. I had become interested in refugee issues but had not found a chance to do related work until, as if by fate, I learned about MAP and applied to be a volunteer right away.
Q3. What changes do you feel in yourself before and after starting the activities?
Three months have already passed since I started, and I learn something new every week. By collaborating with others I learned how to work as part of a team, and being with good people taught me about the language I use and my attitude toward others. At first I was afraid of communicating with refugees in English, but now I can talk with them relatively naturally. I had also never studied refugee issues properly, but through the childcare cost support program and the Peace Academy training I was able to learn concretely about many topics, such as the refugee system, immigration policy, trauma-informed care, and the lives of refugee women. So much has changed that I can no longer pinpoint just one or two things!
Q4. What activity left the strongest impression on you?
The activity that left the strongest impression on me was meeting and talking with a child’s guardian in person. At first our conversation was awkward, but at some point we were smiling and joking with each other, and we actually visited Good Samaritan’s House, where this person works, and shared a meal. I had mostly communicated with the guardian by phone, but talking face to face made me feel the guardian’s life as that of a person rather than a beneficiary. I can still vividly recall the atmosphere and the conversation of that day. It was a special activity in which I felt the sense of a practitioner more strongly than that of a social welfare student.
Q5. What do you think our society needs most in order to live together with refugees?
I think the first thing our society needs in order to live together with refugees is room to breathe. This may sound out of the blue, but in a life with no room to breathe, it is really hard to take an interest in the lives of others, is it not? Just as the word “jeong,” the warm heart that cares about other people, is hardly heard anymore, I fear that one day this “room to breathe” will disappear too. I hope that more people can pause, look around them, and have the room to care for others. What is certain is that we are happier when we are together.
Q6. Finally, is there an activity you would recommend to people interested in refugee issues?
If you are interested in refugee issues, I would like to recommend activities where you meet refugees in person. I think you learn more and feel it more sincerely when you meet as one person to another than when you come across refugees through writing or photos. However, refugees are not very visible in our society, so such opportunities are rare. So why not apply for volunteer work alongside refugees, like the MAP volunteers?