Warm Love of Neighborhood
"We are just happy to be a part of social volunteer service. Helping someone in a poorer condition can't be anything better than this."
Busan Jin Tidy Consulting room in Jeon Po Dong, Busan Jin district on February 6. With one of the biggest celebrations in Korea just ahead, lunar New Year's Day, ten residents in the tiny village are concentrating on packing gift sets which will be passed on to homeless persons.
They seemed like they were packing all their efforts directly into 300 cards called "Love and Happiness Pockets" that said "Cheer up. We will be your closest neighbor!" and filling up a box with nine life supplies like a towel, underwear, gloves and toiletries.
People from the tiny village will look for places to deliver the gift sets to homeless persons who usually appear around Busan station, Seo Myoen underpass and Jagalchi market starting on the night of February 13.
Most of villagers experienced the homeless life in the past and they are more likely to understand the agony of a homeless person than anyone else during some cold winter days or celebration periods.
They have left their homeless life and live in small one to two pyeong rooms through some self-improvement program at the tiny village consulting office. However, some part in their heart could not forget the sadness they left behind. So they have approached helping the homeless as a way of support with the donating committee of the joint social welfare function.
The people are not just there to meet the homeless and deliver a present. They are planning to tell the stories of when they had nowhere to go and suggest living a new life by throwing off old habits of living on the streets.
Village resident Bang Jong Chan (59) said, "I was identified as homeless for the past eight years so I know how difficult and lonely the life is during this period. I know many homeless friends who are in these circumstances so I am thinking about luring my friends into dumping their homeless living while I give them a gift."
This is not the first time for the residents to participate in a social volunteer service program. A tiny village consultation office in Busan Jin district has been offering social application training to the homeless who dream of self-improvement after leaving the homeless life through a program called "Discovery of Life."
People from Jin district have individually adopted the joint life through various volunteer activities such as making fruit baskets, bathing the severely disabled, cleaning the town for the elderly who live alone.
Consultation Chief Yang Song Wook at the tiny village consultation office in Busan Jin district stated, "People who have less than others are not just taking all the help, they also bring up their will to carry on through changes in acknowledgement of giving favors to others."
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 / 입력시간: 2007. 02.08. 09:15
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