Once sexually enslaved during Japan’s occupation of their countries, some of these women, all of them in their eighties and older, decided to donate some of their pension money to quake survivors. “We had a hard time as victims [of sexual slavery], but we are living with hope after receiving so much help from around the world”.

Seoul (AsiaNews) – In the course of our lives, "We had a hard time as victims [of sexual slavery], but we are living with hope after receiving so much help from around the world,” said Kim Gun-ja, a 90-year-old former comfort woman from the time Japan ruled Korea. Now, “We hope Nepal can recover from the damage as soon as possible.”

She spoke at a temple in Seoul she visited with others to bring the money donated by ten elderly former ‘comfort women’, a euphemism used for the women forced to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers on frontlines or in barracks during Japan’s wars of aggression before 1945.

According to Korean sources, only 54 women out of approximately 200,000 are still alive. Some of them met Pope Francis during his pastoral visit to Korea in August 2014.

The elderly women from the House of Sharing in Gwangju raised US$ 4,500, taken from their meagre savings. They gave their cheque to ‘Good Hands,’ a Buddhist NGO set up in 2003 involved in Nepal since it was founded.

The women’s gift “will provide clean water to the camps where refugees live,” said an official with the group.

The devastating earthquake hit Nepal on April 25 killing at least 8,000 people with tens of thousands injured and millions of displaced. The earth shook again yesterday, killing another 65.

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• nepal
• comfort
• women
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• earthquake