On-site counseling services to help expats

A worker from the Philippines, Dongcolos Neysa needed some help regarding a dispute with her employer. She had fractured her finger and was unable to work, but communication with her boss was difficult due to a language barrier. A Seoul Global Center team was able to help her resolve her problem by calling her employer and reviewing her medical benefits.

On Nov. 15, the Seoul Global Center held an On-Site Counseling Service for expats in Hyehwa-dong. The SGC has carried out the service every Sunday since April 5. This was the 30th time it was offered.

Neysa said she was very satisfied with the help she received. "If I have any more problems, I will go back again," she said. "It`s great that they can help people like me with problems we face in Korea."

Services sponsored by the government and other public organizations similar to the SGC`s have been offered to expats in the past, but were not initially as successful as expected. They found that they could not tackle both the larger and smaller aspects of their lives in Korea, so the SGC decided to start a new on-site counseling service to supplement the areas lacking.



The Hyehwa site was chosen since there are a lot of people from the Philippines in the area on Sunday, because they come to mass at Hyehwa Catholic Church every week.

"It is like a mini Seoul Global Center," said Kim Tae-gyun, who is in charge of the service. "Most of the people who come are satisfied with the services, and they tell their friends, so the number of people who come keeps increasing."

On Nov. 8, counseling was also offered at the Yurak Community Welfare Center, located in Shindang-dong for the first time. This location was chosen because many Vietnamese people work for furniture and industrial complexes around the area.

This on-site counseling service is available to all expats, but most who come are migrant workers or immigrant spouses of Korean nationals, primarily of Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, Filipino and Vietnamese decent.

"We have these services for those who cannot come to the Seoul Global Center, so they can come to get counseling from us on the weekend," explained Kim.

Often, the foreign workers do not know where to ask for help when it comes to having problems at work, such as pay discrimination.

Those who have a problem at work or in other areas of daily living abroad, can experience difficulty in finding the right resources to resolve their problems. It is the SGC`s goal to try to get rid of as many of these issues as possible.

The counseling service is available every weekend and covers general problems that non-Koreans encounter, especially regarding labor, legal, national pension, consumer questions, and mobile phone service. Places where the on-site counseling service is offered changes every week.

About 15 to 20 counselors and volunteers are available at each site. Regardless of whether or not visitors can speak Korean or English fluently, volunteers are available to help them in their native language.

Riza Corsiga, an SGC volunteer who speaks Korean, English and Tagalong - the native Filipino language - goes to help at the On-Site Counseling sites each week. She emphasized that services like these are very important.

"Foreign workers need special counseling ... they often have problems but don`t tell others because they`re scared of their managers." Corsiga, who has lived in Korea for five years, stressed the importance of volunteers with language skills or a lot of knowledge on life in Korea to help their fellow countrymen with less experience. "I want to help my fellow Filipinas by interpreting and helping solve their problems."

This week`s On-site Counseling Service will be on Nov. 29 at Gwanghui-dong Community Service Center (Jung-gu, Gwanghui-dong). The service operates from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For those who are interested in more information about On-site Counseling Services or for general inquiries about other services offered by the Seoul Global Center, visit the website at http://global.seoul.go.kr or contact the SGC at (02) 1688-0120.

(shannon.sgc@gmail.com)

By Lee Mi-hyang and Shannon Heit