As in any country, sexual harassment, assault, and rape are an evil prevalent in Korean society, but due to societal norms women are discouraged from combating the violence. It is generally assumed that whatever happened was the womanĄŻs fault and that as a woman, she is expected to be subservient to her male superiors. Ten years ago a group of twelve women decided to challenge and change this mentality by forming the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center. These women brought some much-needed attention to the issue of sexual violence against women and children in Korea.
Sexual violence is any physical, verbal, or non-verbal action that forces or threatens a person to be involved in sexual acts against her or his will. The Korea Sexual Relief Center provides numerous services to victims of sexual violence such as extensive psychological, legal, and medical counseling, a 24-hour crisis hotline, and a shelter to young victims of incest. The Center also conducts research, produces several publications, and is actively involved in an education program to educate school children and the general public about sexual violence.
Currently only 6% of all sexual violence incidents in Korea are reported. The Center encourages more women to come forward with their instances and to file law suits. Fortunately the Center is not working alone in its endeavor. Thanks to a recent law granting government funding to build womenĄŻs and sexual violence organizations, about 50 such centers have been created over the past few years. However, even with the creation of the centers, there still remains much to be done to change the social mentality regarding sexual violence.
The Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center is located in the GaRam building in Dogok-Dong Kangnam-Gu and can be contacted via email at ksvrc@chollian.dacom.co.kr. The office phone number is 82-2-576-7128, 5513/4. For general and crisis counseling please call 82-2-529-4271/2 or 82-2-573-1888.
(Paige Krause, pkrause@chosun.com)
