The First Psychiatrist to Enter a Poor Mountain Village Caring for Evictees, Homeless People, and Women and Youth Who Ran Away Due to Poverty and Abuse
Kim Hyun-soo, Executive Director and founder of the nonprofit organization Good Friends of Youth and Families, was selected as the recipient of the 13th Pacific Public Interest and Human Rights Award by the Dongcheon Foundation on the 8th.
This year’s awardee, Kim Hyun-soo, a psychiatrist, was recognized for his contributions over the past 20 years in establishing alternative schools for therapeutic education of youth with borderline intellectual disabilities, autism, ADHD, and other borderline difficulties?often referred to as slow learners?and for his efforts in improving related systems.
His major achievements include ▲ founding the healing alternative school for youth with emotional difficulties, “Growth School Byeol” ▲ establishing “Youth Happiness School Byeol,” a school that enables social participation for slow learners and youth with borderline intelligence ▲ creating Caf? Azarama, Youth Cookie, and Starlight Bookstore to realize the right to work and economic freedom ▲ various advocacy activities for revising laws and ordinances related to slow learners and youth with borderline intelligence ▲ promoting the Freinet education movement for alternative pedagogy ▲ and conducting education movements for public school teachers and parents. He has devoted himself to raising public awareness on the need for support policies and educational system improvements for therapeutic education and healthy social participation of borderline youth.
Father Song Kyung-yong, Chairman of the nonprofit organization Sharing and Future, who recommended Kim Hyun-soo for the award, said, “My longtime comrade ‘Kim Hyun-soo’ was the first psychiatrist to personally enter impoverished hillside neighborhoods, caring for evictees, homeless people, youth who ran away due to poverty and abuse, people with borderline disabilities and their families, students addicted to the internet and games, families of victims of the Sewol ferry disaster and other social tragedies. He has lived alongside them, becoming a warm doctor and healer like a friendly neighbor or a close friend for activists exhausted in body and mind.” He added, “He seeks out difficult and shadowed places himself, dedicating his whole being to serve those people and sharing everything he has. When the counseling centers or alternative schools he founded face financial difficulties, he works at large hospitals and uses his salary to fill the gaps. I am truly glad that the dedication of Dr. Kim Hyun-soo, a brave doctor who has been recklessly courageous for the vulnerable and struggling neighbors of our time and a longtime friend who has been by their side for a long time, is being recognized.”
Executive Director Kim Hyun-soo said, “I hope that in the future, our society will look around to the sides and behind, and be able to hold the hands extended by young people in need of help or reach out to lift them up.” He added, “In the spirit of this precious award, I want to share this honor with our youth and their families, my colleagues who work alongside me, and my beloved family who have believed in and supported me to live this life.”
Meanwhile, Good Friends of Youth and Families is a public interest corporation founded by psychiatrist Kim Hyun-soo that supports therapeutic education, artistic activities, talent discovery, and employment capacity building for borderline youth, promoting their economic and social independence. It operates alternative schools Growth School Byeol and Youth Happiness School Byeol, the Seoul Borderline Youth Support Center including Caf? Azarama and Youth Cookie, Starlight Bookstore, as well as teacher academic research groups and parent education programs.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
