AN IMPORTANT VISITOR

AN IMPORTANT VISITOR

We were treated to an inspiring example of the Rotary Foundation’s Global Scholarship programme in action at our meeting on 22 April.  Our speaker that evening was Kelsey Lechner, who attained an MA degree in Education, International Development and Social Justice at St Mary’s University in Twickenham, funded by the Rotary Foundation.  She is currently working with Connect North Korea, a charity founded to help North Koreans who have escaped the tyranny of their own country to adapt to a new life of freedom in the UK.  

Kelsey spoke eloquently of her experiences as a global scholar and the benefits of the support provided by Rotary.  And she then explained her current work with Connect North Korea, based in our community to support escapees from North Korea who have settled in the Kingston/New Malden area, currently numbering approximately 600.

She spoke with authority and understanding of the difficulties faced in settling into a new environment, learning a new language and of integrating into an alien culture and the ways in which the charity helps them.  The experience of growing up in a totalitarian state is hugely different for North Koreans and they have great difficulty in integrating into a more relaxed situation such as they find in the UK.  They even find it hard to communicate socially with South Koreans, of whom a much larger number are resident in our area, those from the South having grown up with and experienced the totally different competitive capitalist environment of their country.  

Kelsey hails originally from Columbia, a small city in the state of Indiana, but has worked and studied in several other countries in recent years.  It was a pleasure to welcome her to our Rotary Club for two important reasons.  She not only gave us a valuable insight into a relatively unknown aspect of Korean people in our community, but by describing her studies and her subsequent employment in the charity sector, she gave us a clear demonstration of the value of the Rotary Foundation’s Global Scholarship programme in action.