In October 2022, the AFI Secretariat in Brussels received three visitors from Korea for two days. They are researchers, members of the National Institute of Korean History of the Ministry of Education. In Korea, the presence of AFI and its work are well known in the social, educational and medical fields since its establishment in 1956. Thanks to this “visibility” of the AFI, not only the Catholic Church of Korea, but also the Government of Korea is interested in the activities of the AFI in order to know more deeply their contributions in the education of students, workers, children in the underprivileged social environment as well as the socio-medical service and even their participation in the democratization of the country. Thus, since September 2022, the National Institute of Korean History has been researching the activities of the AFI since 1956, the year of the opening of the Girls’ Hostel in Seoul where Angela Mistura, Gabi Vilsmeier and Lina Maes began their work.

Then Mado Bousquet, Wilgefort Sommer, Colette Noir, Sigrid Giersberg, Anita Stalf, Liesel Kerkeling and Marie-Hélène Brasseur arrived, motivated by the desire to serve the people and the country by contributing in the educational, social and medical fields. They opened and worked in the hostel for women workers, the catechetical centers, the pharmacy and the dispensaries etc. All this work is done with about 30 Korean AFIs. Theresa Jung ok Kim, one of the first Korean AFI, translated Father Lebbe’s works and books on AFI and made AFI known especially in the Catholic milieu. Because of or because of all these activities, the National Institute of Korean History sent three researchers to the AFI “Mother House”

the Headquarters, in Brussels to learn more about their contributions by researching articles, documents and photos of the archive from 1955 to 1985. They worked for two full days and met with the Secretaries and visiting AFIs. By chance in the calendar, at that time, 3 AFIs from Korea, Eun Mi Park, Theresa KIM Young min, Agnes Choi Myong suk and a friend Youn Ju Rafaella came to the AFI House to meet the Belgian AFIs and the Secretaries as well. They stayed for a week and discovered life in Belgium and had the “international experience” that is often talked about. It was a great opportunity.

Juliana Kim