• 🚗 서울로 떠난 짧은 여행 (하빕)
  A City Break to Seoul (Habib ullah Hassani)
• 💪🏽 난민 어머니의 코너 - 변화를 촉구하다!! (마사)
  Refugee Mom's Corner  - Call for Action!! (Martha)
• 🌹나탈리의 코너 - 이틀간 나눈 대화를 돌아보며
  Nathalie’s Corner - Personal Reflections from Two Days of Dialogue

Q. What motivated you to take part in this workshop?

Bereket: I can say that I was attracted to the CPS workshop for personal reasons and as part of my leadership roles in the Ethiopian community. Being a refugee in a country where life is tough and social pressure is high leads to constant stress and anxiety, which definitely affects mental health. Many refugees experience past trauma and daily life’s hardship, isolation, and working long hours to sustain their survival. Therefore, they’re prone to mental health issues, including stress and depression. Participating in the program, I aimed to help myself and others by understanding what CPS is all about and the methods that apply effectively in coping with stress.

Jiin: I joined this workshop as an observer and note-taker, but my motivation was deeply personal. In my work, I often encounter discussions about refugee mental health framed around service gaps, language barriers, and lack of access. While these structural issues are real, I wanted to understand what happens between those gaps—how people in the community are already responding to distress, often without naming it as “mental health support.” What drew me in was the workshop’s focus on community members as support actors. I wanted to witness how concepts like psychosocial support and self-care are understood, questioned, and reshaped by people who are living these realities every day. As a recorder, I felt responsible not only for documenting content, but for capturing how care is spoken, felt, and negotiated in the room.

• • •

It was late November that I found out about the CPS Workshop. (editor’s note: “Community Psycho-social Supporters Workshop - an event organized by Homointer and Hanokers) I felt that it was the kind of a workshop that everyone should participate in these days, because it would equip individuals with practical skills to manage stress, regulate emotions, and approach life challenges logically.

The workshop was held on Sunday, 7th of December. We, in other words, Yusuf, Mahdi, Abbas and I, decided to take a short trip together to Seoul, and enjoy Saturday night on the road together. It should be noted that we were guests at Reza’s house that night – Reza is a mutual friend. He was not just a host, but also our guide as well.

• • •

“Martha” is a Ugandan refugee, single mom, activist, and a regular contributor to Hanokers Newsbrief.

pNnan is a real team of different individuals working together to help refugees in Korea fit in society. They know more than anyone else about the asylum process, help in the asylum process itself, and go out of their way to give asylum seekers all the relevant information that they need to know. It is one of the largest organizations - reaching out to and helping more refugees and migrants than any other organization, as far as I know . Online Korean programs, food donations, assistance with legal and medical needs, social support, shelter when needed, and so much more. Most importantly, it is a safe place where everyone is welcomed with a smile and open arms. All refugee-related issues are answered to.

If you are a person who’s growing and at the same time contributing to the lives of others, you will be amazed at what can happen to your life. Not all of us in life can do great things , but we can do small things with great love. I feel sad to see that our best refugee organization is moving to a smaller space, due to financial reasons from reduced funding.  So here I come to ask everyone out there who is wishing refugees well. To all those out there, please do come out and contribute, leaving aside differences for now. To the Pnan team, this is a challenging time. But, please, just have this in mind, your efforts and hearts are deeply noticed and wholeheartedly appreciated. To the Korean people,  churches and organizations, who wish refugees well, giving is not just making a donation, it's about making a difference in real people’s lives. I say this from my personal experience. For those out there who will come across my message,  please tag a friend and ask them to continue sharing till we find enough support.  Pnan is an exceptional organization that deserves support from all of us.

• • •

Editor’s Notes: Nathalie attended the Korea Refugee Forum, a large, public event in Seoul, on Dec. 9, and visited the Good Samaritan’s House in Uijungbu for a small, private gathering on Dec. 10. She started writing this piece a few days later.

Inside the kitchen at Good Samaritan’s House last week, I listened to all the different accents lift and carry the conversation between us like so many helping hands. I was seated at the common table where we were stringing wax onto twine to eventually sell as candles. Good Samaritan’s House is a cooperative cafe for migrant women north of Seoul in Uijeongbu. 

I was struck by the easy flow of our conversation in English and Korean. The four of us seated at the table came not only from different countries, but also from different languages, generations, and family-makeups. And yet the common denominator of being in Korea was enough to overcome those seemingly greater divides.

• • •

The first Korea Refugee Forum, with a total of 167 participants from 54 different organizations, was successfully held on the 9th December 2025, at the Seoul National University of Education, emphasizing a Whole-of-Society Approach to secure access to protection in asylum systems, legal assistance, and human Rights. selected organizations shared diverse perspectives on refugee protection and social integration in Korea. Including Hanokers’ core team members, Conan and Bereket, the forum was attended by many refugees and advocates, who represent different origins and cultural backgrounds, as well as refugee-led organizations, local governments, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, UNHCR Korea, civil society, faith-based organizations, academia, educational institutions, and the private sector.

• • •

*The language used here is Dari, one of the official languages of Afghanistan, belonging to the Persian language family and sharing a high degree of mutual intelligibility with Iranian Persian (Farsi).

در تاریخ ۱۳ سپتامبر ۲۰۲۵، گزارشی جامع در مورد وضعیت مردم افغانستان در طول چهار دهه گذشته از سوی یک سازمان غیردولتی و حقوق بشری کشور کوریای جنوبی منتشر گردید. این گزارش بهگونه ویژه به وضعیت مردم افغانستان، بهخصوص هزارهها اختصاص یافته و ابعاد انسانی، حقوقی و سیاسی زندگی آنان را بررسی کرده است.

بخش مهمی از این گزارش به داستانهای واقعی و عینی پناهندگان هزاره در چندین کشور آسیایی اختصاص دارد؛ روایتهایی که بر اساس تحقیقات میدانی و مصاحبههای رو در رو با پناهندگان افغانستان در کوریای جنوبی، پاکستان و ایران گردآوری شدهاند. این رویکرد تحقیقی نشان میدهد که وضعیت پناهندگان افغانستان، بهویژه هزارهها، از منظر قومی و مذهبی تا چه اندازه در معرض آزار، تبعیض و سرکوب سیستماتیک قرار داشته و این روند از دهه ۱۹۸۰ میلادی تا امروز بهگونه مستمر ادامه یافته است.

• • •