| Korea
Field of actions as a social entrepreneur
Family and Community
Demographics, Health, and Life
Governance and Participation
Your personal work and expectations for the future
As a coordinator for the Korea Information and Referral Service
Center for Aging (KISCA), Eunju Kim has helped establish a "community
in both geography and spirit" for the elderly.
As a sociology major at Sogang University, Eunju began taking
courses to understand the concept of "ageing" and its role within
a societal context. Her university years and those which followed
exposed her to the reality that the situation and contribution
of the elderly are crucial elements of implementing progressive
social change.
Upon graduating, Eunju worked for the Korean Progressive Academic
Council where she was exposed to more specific issues within Korean
society at large. Her interest in resources for the elderly escalated
after her marriage. With six grandparents between her nuclear
family and that of her spouse's, one of Eunju's priorities became
keeping these elder citizens healthy and helping to give them
a voice within a society which had ignored them for so long.
Eunju began working at KISCA while simultaneously pursuing a doctorate.
Her work with the elderly there has included counseling, advocacy,
consulting, program development, and fundraising. Her involvement
with the "Daycare Center for Elder People" program drew the attention
of Samsung Electronics, establishing a firm financial base for
the program. She is currently at Syracuse University in New York
where she is researching methods to build and manage a social
network for elder Korean women who wish to live independently.
Your personal definition of Social Entrepreneur
A person who invests their life to make a world where every individual
is considered a unique, total human being, not biased by age,
gender, physical or mental ability, or by any other social categories.
Also a person who is concerned about not only the goal of their
work, but also the way of how they will make it. |
