Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Nurse receives Sungcheon Award for work in Malawi
Baek Young-sim Courtesy of JW Group
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
Baek Young-sim, a nurse who devoted herself to providing medical services in Malawi, East Africa, for 30 years has been chosen as the recipient of the 8th Sungcheon Award, according to the JW Foundation.
The JW Foundation, a public-benefit corporation founded in 2011 by JW Holdings honorary Chairman Lee Jong-ho, announced that it presented the award to Baek from Daeyang Luke Hospital in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi. It is the first time a nurse has been the winner of the prize, the foundation said.
“I have only been thinking of nursing as everything in my life,” Baek said. “I think it's an award on behalf of nurses and medical workers in Korea as well as Malawi which has been battling at the forefront of the coronavirus pandemic.”
The Sungcheon Award was established to honor Lee Gi-seok, the founder of JW Pharmaceutical, also known as Sungcheon. Medical volunteers contributed to promote medical welfare and became social models are eligible for the award.
Baek graduated from Halla University on Jeju Island in 1984, and worked as a nurse at a hospital affiliated with Korea University before leaving for Africa in 1990 when she decided to devote herself to medical services for underprivileged people there.
She was 27 years old when she started her volunteer work in Kenya, but she headed to Malawi in 1994 where the medical environment was worse than Kenya. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa with a population of 19 million. Baek began her volunteer work in Malawi from a mobile medical vehicle.
With the help of an entrepreneur, she oversaw the building of Daeyang Luke Hospital, where 200,000 patients can receive treatment annually. Baek also worked with the Malawi government to promote AIDS prevention and maternal health projects, and establish a nursing college there.
“The dedication of her life, who has been settled in the country and established the infrastructure for people in need was in line with the purpose of the award,” said Lee Sung-nak, chairman of the Sungcheon Award Committee and honorary president of Gachon University of Medicine.
The award ceremony will be held at JW Pharmaceutical's headquarters in Seoul, Aug. 18.