Good morning everyone! My name is Heejung Yoon from the Korean Women’s Association of New Zealand.
First of all, thank you for inviting us and for giving us the opportunity to introduce our organization.
I am going to talk about our organization’s history, vision, and major meaningful activities this year for about 5 minutes.
Korean Women’s Association of NZ is a non-profit organization established in 1996 and has been registered Charities
Commission since 2009, with around 3,000 registered members.
I will call it KWANZ from now on. In short, KWANZ (Korean Women’s Association of NZ)
KWANZ is mainly composed of Korean Women immigrants from Korea.
like all immigrants, Korean women also have difficulties settling down here in New Zealand, where the language, culture,
and legislation are very different from Korea.
KWANZ is working for Korean women who are in need due to isolation, loneliness, frustration, and lack of support or
network.
To ensure the well-being and happiness of Korean women in New Zealand, we set up the 3 visions, which are as follows:
First, Equip to Settle, assists Korean immigrant women to assimilate into New Zealand society among their fellow
immigrants.
Second, Equip to health is designed to assist a mother of a family, a wife, or a daughter who are striving for physical and
mental health.
Third, Equip to Work encourage women’s participation in society as professionals.
To realize this vision, we hold health seminars every March to monitor and support the mental and physical health of our
families, we also have regular legal forums to help Korean women to assimilate into New Zealand society. The legal forum
covers a variety of topics such as small business start-ups and the Employment Act, Pension, Tax, and property law Act,
general finance, etc.
we provide free legal advice as well by professional attorneys covering such topics as domestic violence, bullying,
international student counseling, relationships with neighbors, and other related activities.
In addition to these seminars/forums, we are currently running over 10 weekly learning classes, which are essential things
to learn to live here. for example, English reading class, Computer&Smart phone class, Sewing class, Photo class, Golf
class, tennis class, Korean dance class, Samul nori which is a Korean traditional instrumental performance, etc.
As you might imagine that we have done a lot of meaningful activities this year, but I'd like to introduce only some of
them due to time limitations.
First, It’s related to COVID-19, we conducted a successful vaccination campaign for Korean where approximately 710
Korean were vaccinated in connection with Waitamata hospital, Asian Health Network, and Browns Bay Unichem. And
we were able to directly help Korean neighbors by providing rice and ramen for free to 110 Korean residents suffering
from COVID-19. Doing the vaccination campaign and helping directly Korean people was truly worthwhile.
Second, we held photo exhibitions three times this year. Many Korean and locals visited the exhibitions, and it was a
relaxing and short break and healing time during their busy daily life.
Third In September, we had a Local Election Vote seminar to encourage Korean residents to vote in the local elections.
We guided and discussed how to identify candidates in each region, the voting process, and why voting is so important to
Auckland society.
Fourth, In November, we had a CPR 3 steps for Life training by a professional trainer from St. John. This CPR Training,
which can save people's lives in emergency situations, was more meaningful due to the active participation of more than
60 Korean residents.
All programs held by the KWANZ I told you about before are totally open to everyone.
It means that our programs are not only for Korean women immigrants but also for all Korean people who live in New
Zealand or for locals as well.
And, I think you could already feel that these programs held by KWANZ are not just one-time, they are regular and
ongoing programs, participating in these ongoing programs naturally leads to the creation of a human network including
Korean women, Korean people, and locals. This human networking helps our Korean settle down well and build a sense
of belonging in this Auckland society, without feeling isolated or lonely.
We will develop and implement more useful and beneficial new programs next year to provide practical help and support
to all Korean people living in New Zealand.
I sincerely hope that the Korean Women’s Association will continue to contribute to the development of Auckland society
and the Korean community as a whole.
Thank you for listening and for your time.
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The expression “My wife” to a Korean comes to symbolize the meaning “Sun of the house”. We believe that the wife, the
sun of the family, brightens the family with a happy smile. Then society will be brightened, and finally, the whole world
will be peaceful.