Godmother for Poor Children Vows to Change Society
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The governing Grand National Party (GNP) is likely to be known as the good Samaritan party if lawmakers are successful in making a difference to the needy and children living in poverty, a party lawmaker said Thursday.
Rep. Kang Myung-soon, 56, said she is optimistic about improving the living standards of those in need if she and her colleagues ``fight to the end'' in the legislative body to craft and pass bills on kitchen table issues.
Kang, known as the ``godmother'' of poor children, was the GNP's No. 1 candidate under the proportional representation system in the April 9 elections. Twenty-two GNP candidates became lawmakers under the scheme.
Party insiders said Kang, a pastor as well as a life-long activist for children from working class families, was considered a perfect fit for the GNP candidate screening as the party was striving to tackle negative connotations with the opposition calling them a party advocating unbridled capitalism with little or no compassion for the poor.
Since entering Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Kang has worked tirelessly to help children from poor and broken families, to prevent them from becoming victims of the vicious circle of poverty.
Over the past 21 years, her non-profit charity organization, Corporation Leftovers Love Sharing Community, has helped approximately 9,700 underprivileged children through 403 local centers nationwide that offer programs and services for needy children.
Volunteers offer a variety of educational programs and childcare services to children, with individuals and families joining the make-a-difference campaign by donating cash to children who would otherwise not be able to pay for their school lunches.
``When I was in college, I joined a voluntary program that helped children living in shabby single-room housing in an urban slum area of Seoul. Their parents were vendors selling daily products and were barely making ends meet,'' Kang said in an interview with The Korea Times.
As a college student, Kang took care of and taught those children that were left alone when their parents went to work, and these children, having received little affection from their parents clung to her, making it difficult for her to leave.
``I decided not to leave them,'' she said. After graduating from Ewha, Kang lived in another urban slum with her husband for five years in order to help her neighbors.
Her life-long quest in helping the poor, homeless and children living in poverty continues through her legislative activities.