Ansan Immigrant Center

The 6 members were divided into two groups of three; one group was in charge of encouraging immigrants and the other was in charge of registering immigrants who came to get treatments. The groups rotated the tasks every hour. During the first hour, I was in charge of registration. A lot of immigrants came to get treatments, and I was busy writing down their personal information for the entire hour. Then, when I was outside, I was busy answering the questions that I received from immigrants regarding the eye treatments. The most frequent question I was asked was “ Is it really free?” It made me realize how difficult it is for them to get medical treatments in Korea. We were able to gather many people, but at one point we had to stop. Apparently, there were limits to medical supplies that only 80 people could be treated. This number was met within a short amount of time, and we had to return inside. Inside the building, I helped out with getting the people in order. The hardest part of the job was when I had to return the people who had came for treatments because of the ’80 people’ limit. As I observed the people, I was shocked to see that the eye conditions for some of these immigrants were worse than I expected. I saw some immigrants who were in danger of almost loosing their eyesights. As the final stage of the treatments was approaching, I thought about how many immigrants who required the treatments could not get them. However, I learnt today that there are people who are trying to make changes. I was just glad that I was able to participate in that cause.

Service Must Go On

Since I cannot attend Hyeeun school any more, I have decided to write about my other community service experience. I am part of an organization called VCGY (Vision Care Global Youth), which is an organization administered by a group of students. The main purpose of this organization is to help people who are blind and people who are in danger of loosing their sights. Recently, I visited Ansan Immigrant Center, where VCGY members attend monthly to help out. This time 6 VCGY members were there to help out. Our mission there was to facilitate the operation of free eye medical treatments for immigrants by encouraging immigrants to get the treatments, and by helping the registration process. For those of you who have never been to Ansan, it is a place full of immigrants from various places: China, Algeria, Nepal, Pakistan, and so on. These immigrants don’t have the national health insurance, and without a health insurance, a simple treatment at the hospital can cost them a fortune. Therefore, unfortunately, it is difficult for those immigrants to get medical treatments in Korea. So, real ophthalmology doctors ( eye doctors) come to Ansan to give the immigrants free eye medical treatment every month, and we are there to help those doctors do their jobs.