봉사를 향한 열정 하나로 부산의 소외계층을 돌보다

Take care of the alienated class in Busan

only with passion for public service

Yoo Gyeong-ja, first president of 21 General Service for Busan Welfare

The business card handed over by Yoo Gyeong-ja, first president of 21 General Service for Busan Welfare, is clearly inscribed with three words ? the young, the old, the disabled. It describes the activities of 21 General Service for Busan Welfare, annually presenting scholarship to helpless youths, waiting on the elderly living alone and providing living expenses for the disabled. 21 General Service for Busan Welfare with the matrix of ‘21 Busan Welfare Service for the Disabled’ founded in 1995 by 16 volunteer workers including president Yoo Gyeong-ja has built up to the largest confraternity in Busan area since its foundation in February 1999. We met President Yoo Gyeong-ja, who has been working with a low profile for the welfare of Busan area, to hear her views on the public spirit in this time.

Public service is my way never to be stopped.

The life of Yoo Gyeong-ja, who was born in 1937 in Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk, and settled down in Busan following her father, a railroad official, boils down to ‘public service and devotion.’ Her life of public service began when in her childhood she lived in a railroad official residence, giving things to eat and wear away to the handicapped sleeping in the open on the railroad site. She sponsored the 1st joint wedding of the disabled held in 1982 for the first time in Busan area and continued to support groups for disabled people by successively serving as Sponsor head of Korea Association of Persons with Physical Disabilities Busan branch, president of Korea Palgak Club, Seongji Sorority, etc. President Yoo Gyeong-ja is something like a mother of the disabled in Busan area. She served as the first president of an aid association assisting the foundation of Korea Association of the Disabled Busan branch and then she has supported scholarship for 700 disabled children and living expenses for needy neighbors for 18 years. That’s not all. Not only did she take care of disabled persons’ study abroad but made a home for seriously disabled persons to plan on marriage as a wedding master. She has been holding ‘Camp of love’ for 12 years which aims to lead the youths correctly by connecting children in a welfare facility or disabled person with an adolescent one to one. Besides, she never stopped public service for Sorok-do for 38 years while devoted to voluntary service on a childcare facility such as Saedeul Home, Seongwoo Home, Shinae Rehab Home, etc.

Do good but never think you are doing good.

As of April 2013, there are dozens of NGO’s in Busan area. Of the multitude of Busan NGO’s, 21 General Service for Busan Welfare is the only confraternity that has successfully stood on its feet after forming voluntarily. However, no one knows what hardship this organization has suffered until becoming the best confraternity in Busan area. It was not a few times that she felt sorry about disabled people in a desperate need of help she couldn’t lend her hand due to lack of the budgets. “If my will had been weak, I would have broken off dozens or hundreds of times. However, it was so satisfying to support living expenses for the disabled, childcare facility, silver welfare, etc. and provide scholarship.” President Yoo Gyeong-ja’s words reflected her warm heart toward alienated neighbors as it was. Though 21 General Service for Busan Welfare was given a certain amount of money by mid-sized companies like Sejeong and Vilac, and Busan city, the budget was much too short for her wishes to help more people. Each time of those, President Yoo Gyeong-ja has donated unsparingly her property inherited from her husband’s parents and private property she had from running a jeweler’s.

In the 21st-century society of sharing, welfare is the thing.

Since the last February 26 when she made over the presidency of 21 General Service for Busan Welfare to a new president Kim Wan-tae, Yoo Gyeong-ja still holding the initial presidency of 21 General Woman’s Service for Busan Welfare and president of 21 scholarship foundation for Busan Welfare is recently keeping busy with a new plan. It is a new basis for social work she has prepared for proceeding with volunteer work with more of alienated people. She is conceiving a business to provide information, board and lodging for domestic and foreign tourists of Busan by opening three stories of a 7-storied building prepared at Minrak-dong, Busan, as guest house. With king crabs shop prepared on the first floor of the same building, she is also driving forward the business of testing brain waves, eco-friendly sanitizer, etc. Secretary-general Ha Seon-sik is playing a large role in this business, the portion of whose profits is going to be used for scholarship and donations for public service. President Yoo Gyeong-ja referred to secretary-general Ha Seon-sik as “a nice man who appreciates my will devoted to public service for 40 years” and believes that “he will succeed to my path I have clung to with all my heart and soul.” Yoo Gyeong-ja, the first president who has given birth to 21 General Service for Busan Welfare, which is spreading future-oriented welfare policy to help the neighbors in the shade out to the warm sunny spot, finished the interview with her impressions, “I wish 21 General Service for Busan Welfare will go down the history as I am hoping now.” She looked happy and the reporter surmised that it is because her entire life has been devoted to public service.