‘Unification Starts at Dinner Table’
KOREA TIMES
02-08-2010 19:31
Prof. Lee Ae-ran’s Devotion to NK Escapees Acknowledged by US
By Cho Jae-hyon
Staff Reporter
Lee Ae-ran, a professor at Kyungin Women’s College, will receive the International Women of Courage Award from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton next month in recognition of her devotion to supporting women and children who escaped from North Korea.
It will be the first time that a Korean has received the honor since the U.S. Department of State began handing out the award in 2007.
“It’s really an honor. I haven’t done much to be acknowledged by this award. But I take it as a prize to encourage me to do more going forward for those who escaped from the North,” Lee told The Korea Times, Monday.
She said U.S. Ambassador to Korea Kathleen Stephens recommended her and announced the selection of Lee as the winner last week at a conference in Seoul. The conference was for raising donations for North Korea.
It is the only award within the U.S. Department of State that pays tribute to outstanding women leaders worldwide. It recognizes the courage and leadership shown as they struggle for social justice and human rights. The awards ceremony will take place in Washington on March 8.
Lee, a 45-year-old professor of the food and nutrition department, is the first person to receive a doctorate degree here among female escapees from the North. She obtained the degree in food and nutrition from Ewha Womens University.
Lee fled to the South with her four-year-old son in October 1997. Though she majored in food and nutrition at a college in the North, there was not much she could to do for a living in the South. In the initial years, she worked various jobs from a hotel maid to an insurance saleswoman.
She managed to open a small restaurant in 2000 and eventually enrolled in a master’s degree course at Ewha Womens University.
Since then, she has started aiding poor children and female escapees from the North in cooperation with like-minded people.
She has steadily raised funds from her acquaintances and people around her to help women and students who escaped from the North.
Lee has also arranged gatherings to teach them the Bible.
“People from the North are leading difficult lives here. That’s because their mind is being swayed. What they need is not actual food but a sort of spiritual food,” Lee said. “Religion helps them control their mind. That’s why we are studying the Bible.”
She has also established the North Korean Traditional Food Culture Institute under the motto of “Unification starts from the dinner table.”
She believes North Korean escapees will be able to narrow the gap by sharing food culture with South Koreans.
“There are wide gaps in cultural and many other fields between the two, but we can narrow the differences through food. That’s why I established the North Korean food institute,” she said.
She aims to train 100 cooks from those who fled the North.
Lee is also arranging seminars for university students.
“In the past, we have discussed policies and other possible steps to help them. But we’ve realized that those talks do not help much,” Lee said. “So, from now on our seminars will focus on what we should do rather than discussing what policies are needed.”
She said the award will motivate her to make greater efforts to help those who flee the North settle more smoothly here.
“I want to help nurture a larger number of talents from those who have escaped from the North,” she said.