AN Irish priest has been honoured with the "Immigrant of the Year" award in South Korea, for his over 40 years of dedication to support marginalised people.
Seventy-year-old Father Daniel Brendan O'Keeffe is the formation programme director of the Missionary Society of Saint Columban in South Korea.
The Catholic priest from Ireland received award with a presidential citation at an award ceremony organised by the Ministry of Justice in late last month.
"I was very surprised to hear that I was selected as the awardee, out of many other immigrants that have shown greater deeds than me. I appreciate the Missionary Society of Saint Columban for having sent me here, giving me an opportunity to carry out my ministry with the Korean people," O'keeffe said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.
The priest said he knew very little about South Korea before coming to the country in 1976.
"I knew only three things - very cold winter, political turbulence under the dictatorship, and the fact that it was becoming an export-oriented country."
O'Keefe said he spent the first four years adapting to local Church culture, learning the Korean language and interacting with local residents, while serving as an assistant priest in the southwestern island of Heuksan, and then in Mokpo, South Jeolla province.
In 1980, he settled in Bucheon, Gyeonggi province, having been appointed to work with factory workers.
"Many workers in small factories were teenagers from rural areas. As they could not receive proper school education, they felt a sense of inferiority and insecurity."
Together with religious sisters, he established an "open house" where young workers were invited for educational programmes and gatherings.
"We made an environment where they could freely express themselves and share any stories about their lives," he recalled.
"In addition, through studies on labour law and educational programmes on critical thinking and self-development, many of the workers became key people in the formation of labour unions in the late 1980."
In the 1990s, O'Keeffe moved to a shanty town in Bongcheon, Gwanak district in Seoul, and lived with the tenants who had nowhere to go amid vast redevelopment projects.
He worked together with Urban Poor outreach of Seoul Catholic Archdiocese and helped form a tenants' association and ran educational programmes with students from various universities.
This was to help them demand bigger compensation and claim their rights in the reconstruction process.
Following his appointment as the director of the Missionary Society of Saint Columban in South Korea in 1998, he engaged in various environmental activities, as he believed that the religious sector should be more active on the issue.
"Climate change is a challenge to everyone in the world. In South Korea, roughly 50 per cent of its population are religious, whether it be Buddhism, Christianity, or other religions.
He added that if leaders of each religion raised their voices on these issues and spread the message to its members, it will move half of the 52 million population.