Ex-lawmaker at forefront of fighting poverty
.jpg?w=728)
Kang Myung-soon, a politician-turned-civic activist, builds handcraft with a child at a youth camp held in Seoul in this July 31, 2015, file photo. / Courtesy of Kang Myung-soon
By Kim Hyo-jin
Fighting poverty is a lifetime mission for Kang Myung-soon.
She has done everything she can to help the poor, starting off as a social worker, then as a lawmaker and now as a civic activist.
Kang, 65, embarked on the ambitious goal of reducing poverty across the country when she was a member of the 18th National Assembly and took the initiative in helping enact the anti-poverty law.
After her four-year term, Kang went to the front lines in her efforts to fight poverty. She is now leading the grand campaign to end poverty by 2020 as head of the non-governmental organization World Community for Ending Poverty (WCEP).
“Some view it as an unrealistic, lofty goal but it’s a mandatory mission to ease related social issues such as suicide or child murder,” Kang said during an interview Tuesday.
When the recent child abuse cases went viral, she tried to shed light on the causes, many of which were due to family poverty.
Of 122 children murdered between March 2004 and March 2016 in the country, 99 were killed by their parents. In 42 cases, parents confessed that poverty was the motive for the killings, she said.
“Statistically, nearly 30 percent of the entire child-murder cases were caused by parents suffering from financial difficulties, indicating there’s something society can do to stop children from becoming victims,” she said.
Kang has volunteered to help those living in poverty since she was in college in 1972, teaching and feeding the poor in shanty towns in Seoul. She expanded her activities after graduation, operating counseling and study centers for women and children in need.
In the hope of developing policy recommendations to fight poverty, she studied further and earned a PhD in social welfare in the 2000s.
Kang said a series of suicides and murders caused by poverty in 2004 shook her to the core, pushing her to begin a campaign to end child poverty by 2020.
“I couldn’t just stay idle after realizing people living in poverty were prone to commit child murder or suicide,” she said.
Having years of field experience, Kang was put forward as a proportional representative in 2008 by the then ruling Grand National Party, precursor of the Saenuri Party.
The lawmaker proposed and pushed for the passage of the anti-child poverty act in 2011. It aimed to initiate a nationwide move to fight poverty through a government committee for family and child welfare projects.
“I was inspired by the British government’s move following the Victoria Climbie case in which an eight-year-old was murdered by her guardians,” she said, adding that her 2011 act was designed based on the British model. “They were quick in implementing a child protection act which guaranteed financial support for cash-stricken families to ease the burden of caring for children.”
Kang came back to the field after her term finished in 2012.
“Though the act was passed into law, its implementation didn’t follow as expected,” she said. “I thought I’d better become a helping hand to the poor rather than try to help from a distance.”
The former lawmaker is now focusing on counseling and running art activities with the weak and poor, hoping to heal their psychological wounds.
“It seems we are complacent with murder when it is just a few numbers,” Kang said. “I sincerely hope the upcoming 20th Assembly could look at the causes of poverty seriously and do something to help improve the lives of these people.”