More than 600 people join march to respect life and provide medical care for the poor
In a culture in which medicine tends to focus more on scientific discovery than on patients, the Fund, which was set up by the CMC, seeks to raise awareness about the health of the elderly and the poor and encourage people, especially members of the medical profession, to develop a culture of life.
During the week-long fund-raising campaign (4-9 October), CMC volunteers set up information booths in front of Seoul’s main hospitals, and organised various events, including a photo exhibit and a medical lecture. Funds collected will go to a 100 and plus-bed hospital for the poor, finance research on terminal patients and train medical staff.
“At the beginning, the CMC received many contributions from ordinary people,” CMC director Fr Remigio Lee Dong Ik (pictured) said. “With this money, it has been able to help the poor and the marginalised.”
“Such an initiative is giving the CMC an opportunity to go back to the ideals of its early years, devoting itself to people without financial means and transmit to them the power of Jesus Christ, who is the true doctor par excellence,” Father Lee said.
In 1936, a group of Catholics founded the CMC in Seoul in order to bring free medical care to poor families, the elderly and the marginalised. In its early years, it had one hospital with 15 doctors and 24 beds. Through donations from Catholics around the country, it has built one of the most important hospital networks in South Korea with 8 hospitals, 5,200 beds, a medical faculty and a nursing college.
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12/02/2016 15:14
