Choi, Kyung-Sook Awarded First Prize in 22th Woo Jeong Good Deed Awards for 45 Years of Voluntary Medical Service

▷ Oh-woon Cultural Foundation hosts 22nd Woo Jeong Good Deed Award Ceremony

▷ Choi, Kyung-Sook receives first prize for providing medical services in areas where medical services do not reach for 45 years, home and abroad

▷ Main prize goes to "Nest of Sharing", for operating soup kitchen for 17 years; "Freedom School for Youth," that protected teenagers outside of school; and Han, Hong-Soo, for providing free Korean traditional music lessons for the disabled for 19 years

 Oh-woon Cultural Foundation of Kolon Group (Chairman, Lee, Woong-yeol) hosted the 22nd Woo Jeong Good Deed Award Ceremony at the Kolon One&Only Tower in Gangseo-gu, Seoul on October 25. Chairman Lee, Woong-yeol and judges including chief judge Son, Bong-ho, and last year's winners were present at the ceremony to present the trophies and congratulate the winners. Oh-woon Cultural Foundation established the Woo Jeong Good Deed Award in 2001 to discover and spread the unknown good deeds and admirable stories of our society, and this year marks the 22nd year of celebration.

 This year, the grand prize went to Choi, Kyung-sook (Gyeonggido; born 1949; age 73) for providing free medical care for 45 years to people who could not receive medical services in and out of Korea. The main prize went to 3 teams: "Nest of Sharing" for operating soup kitchen every day for underprivileged people, "Freedom School for Youth" for providing free education to teenagers outside of school including preparation for qualification exams, and Han, Hong-Soo (age 50; Jindo, Jeonnam) for providing free Korean classical music lessons for the disabled for 19 years.

 Choi, Kyung-sook who won the grand prize considered volunteer medical service as her calling for 45 years, and is known as the mother of medical service. After her first round of medical service in 1976 as a 2nd-year Ob/Gyn resident, she established the Sorok-milal Group to provide care for Hansen's disease patients with Choi, Byung-han (age 73), husband and pediatrician, in 1998. To date, Sorok-milal Group visits Sorokdo twice a year to provide medicines and to help the lepers.

 The turning point of Choi's medical service activities was cancer. When Choi was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in 1999, it was, surprisingly, the old man with Hansen's disease she became friends with who gave her hope for life and courage. After miraculously recovering from surgery and chemotherapy thanks to the prayers of the Sorokdo patients, Choi decided to fulfill her "bonus" life with "sharing."

 After recovery, Choi created a team of medical staff to support Hansen's disease patients all over the world including Sorokdo, and went to countries like the Philippines, Africa and India. She then extended the medical service to marginalized residents and foreign workers in 2002, and also started to care for homeless people and people living in slums in 2004. In addition to organizing the medical service team with the Korea University College of Medicine Women's Alumni Association and participating in the Korean Medical Association's "Medicine/Love/Sharing" volunteer group, she also led the way in providing quality medical care using various cutting edge medical devices.

 Choi served as the chairman of the Korean Women's Christian Medical Association, vice president of medical service team of the Seoul Medical Association, chairman of Overseas Medical Service Committee under the Korean Medical Women's Association and chairman of Good People Association, and is currently holding such posts as the head of medical service team of Korea University Alumni Association, chief of Sunhan Forum and the director of medical team of Milal Welfare Association. The reason she joined so many organizations, in the first place, was to create a network for efficient medical services. As the result, she was able to quickly extend help in overseas disaster sites including Iraq, Haiti, the Philippines and Nepal since 2002.

 Lee, Woong-yeol, chairman of the Oh-woon Cultural Foundation commented that "I believe she is a huge inspiration to our society in that she ceaselessly conducted volunteer work for 45 years utilizing her area of expertise and that she expanded the scope and the coverage of her service with the commitment of spending her life helping others after overcoming her own health condition." He also added that "I extend my heartfelt congratulations and gratitude to Ms. Choi, Kyung-sook and all the other winners for sharing warmth in various corners of our society."

 3 Main Prize Winners (teams)

Nest of Sharing

"Nest of Sharing" has been operating the "Hope Soup Kitchen" for 17 years to provide lunch to underprivileged neighbors and seniors everyday. It also runs "Hope Learning Center" that provides education to underprivileged children, literacy classes for seniors and comprehensive learning courses for multicultural families, and offers "Senior Sarangbang," a venue for seniors to meet and spend time together.

2. Freedom School for Youth

"Freedom School for Youth" was established under the leadership of Professor Kim, Yoon-gyu of Handong Global University in 2001 as a special school for teenagers. It provides free lessons for students to prepare for qualification examinations and free alternative education, and approximately 500 people who attended "Freedom School for Youth" grew to become journalists, nurses and social workers and so forth.

3. Han, Hong-Soo (age 50; Jindo, Jeonnam)

Mr. Han, Hong-Soo has been offering free Korean traditional music lessons to the disabled for 19 years. Han, who also suffered from polio when young, wished to share the happiness he felt from learning Korean traditional music with other people with disability, and has been offering free lessons since 2002. Since 2013, he has been hosting the "Maeum Nanum (i.e. sharing hearts)" Korean traditional music performance every year with musicians with disability.