Expat helps homeless in Seoul

Matt Hughes is a volunteer helping homeless people in Seoul.

By John Redmond

Seoul, like many large cities throughout the world, faces a growing homeless problem as the sluggish economy, space shortage and lack of infrastructure impacts on the less fortunate members of society struggling to make it from day to day.

For many homeless people, there are shelters staffed by volunteers dotted around the city.

There are some 5,000 homeless people in Seoul according to figures released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2012.

One such volunteer is Matt Hughes, 27, from Chester in England.

After having studied fashion at Liverpool John Moores University he moved to Cheongju about three years ago as he had a friend already living there.

“I fell in love with Seoul and moved here last May,” he said. “I’m currently working as an English teacher and I spend my free time in my art studio doing collage, painting and fashion illustration.”

Q: How often do you volunteer with the homeless?

A:

I usually volunteer once or twice a month. The group is run on a Sunday evening from 7 p.m. at Seoul Station. We aim for about 15 volunteers to help out each week. Each volunteer donates 10,000 won to buy food and milk. The session begins with preparing small plastic bags with soy milk and a bun or sandwich. Originally we just used to hand out soy milk and make jam sandwiches due to costs, but recently we have been giving out a small sausage (the kind that look like smoked cheeses that you can get in convenience stores) and some fruit as well. The funding has been better recently as the attendance from volunteers has been high and we also had a fund raising event in Hongdae which raised 676,000 won.

Q: What does the work involve?

We prepare roughly around 150 food bags and then as a group we walk around Seoul Station, Namdaemun and up near the department stores in Myeong-dong. We mainly hit the subway stations where people have made little cardboard shelters for the night.

Our guide from the shelter, Mr. Kang, usually knows where people are so we just follow his lead. He brings the occasional medicine and spare shoes for people who need it. Over the winter each volunteer would buy some socks, bring a blanket or sweater to donate directly to the people as we walked around.

I always give anything I don’t wear anymore. There’s usually never enough shoes donated, which is a problem.

We usually walk for about an hour and a half which is a great way to chat with people. Sometimes the walking is the hardest part due to the weather in the winter or the rainy season. The winter can be a little heartbreaking too, especially when there are newly homeless people who haven’t got many blankets.

I first got involved last July as a way to meet new people and to further my volunteering. I worked at a charity shop while I was in university, but always wanted to work with the homeless. Back home the homeless shelter never had any openings for volunteers as it was a popular area to volunteer in. I didn’t realize how bad the situation was here in Korea until I started working at the shelter.

Q: How many people visit the shelter?

We encounter around 150-plus homeless people just in the Seoul Station area. I’ve also once volunteered at the soup kitchen as part of “Feed your Seoul” and I was staggered to see how many people came there, I estimate more than 300.

Q: What advice would you give to someone wanting to volunteer?

If anyone wants to volunteer, they can search for the volunteer group P.L.U.R Seoul on Facebook. The group I work for is called Help your Seoul.