Mr. Young-hoang Cho, the Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK), and Young-ae Choi, Ho-jun Kim, two Standing Commissioners, visited the " Wild Flower Blooming Village" and " Wild Flower Blooming School" on May 24, 2006, in Ansan, Kyoung-gi Province.
These shelters are for the teenagers who runaway from home. Wild Flower Blooming Village is a community where a teacher and 5 to 7 runaway teenagers have been living as a small family since 1994. Currently, there are twelve families comprised of about 60 people. Wild Flower Blooming School is for the students of Wild Flower Blooming Village which was established in 2004, and 30 students are currently being educated.
The Chairperson and two Commissioners had a two-hour meeting with teachers and listened carefully to their difficulties and problems. The teachers living with teenagers said that they have a weekly meeting on the education and living conditions of the teenagers. Based on their experiences, they are planning to publish manuals using their case studies of runaway teens for further instruction for teachers. They also expressed a hope that the Commission should support their activities.
The Chairperson and two Commissioners also had a meeting for one hour with the teenagers, who said that they left their home due to domestic violence and other reasons and had many difficulties because they had no guardians or legal representative to take care of them. They even had a hard time with their medical treatment, for they don’t have a health care plan. And they asked the Commission to support them for their human rights restoration.
NHRCK’s visit to runaway teenagers is one of the Commission’s regular visiting programs of the living community for the weak in our neighborhood such as the disabled, the aged and other facility inmates.
