Carmen Margarita Avendano Cubillos, a Colombian nun with the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family, received a presidential commendation Wednesday for 27 years of volunteer work supporting underprivileged youth in Korea.
The award was presented at the Ministry of Justice’s annual Together Day ceremony, held at Yongsan Art Hall in Seoul, to mark the 19th anniversary of the commemorative day celebrating Korea’s growing diversity.
The ministry invited some 700 Koreans and foreign residents to the event, including 32 ambassadors from foreign embassies in Seoul.
Together Day was designated as a statutory commemorative day in 2007 to promote a social environment in which Koreans, overseas Koreans and immigrants can live together while respecting one another’s cultures and traditions.
This year’s ceremony recognized 27 individuals and institutions for their contributions to social integration and immigrant settlement.
Avendano received the highest honor among individual recipients.
The nun was dispatched to Korea in March 1996 and ran a kindergarten in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, while teaching English and catechism to children at churches across Seoul.
She later earned a social worker qualification in 2017 and began working at Amigo House, a group home in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, for children unable to receive adequate care from their families. The facility was opened in 2004 by her religious order, and Avendano currently serves as its director.
Children referred to Amigo House through Good Neighbors and Jeonju City are often unable to remain with their families due to divorce, single-parent household circumstances, financial hardship or domestic violence. They live at the facility until they reach adulthood. Since its founding, the facility has supported 35 children.
In the institutional category, presidential commendations went to the Ansan Koryoin Cultural Center and the Korea Multicultural Welfare Association, respectively, for supporting the settlement of ethnic Koreans from former Soviet states and protecting the rights and welfare of multicultural families, foreign workers and North Korean defectors.
The ceremony also featured a special performance by American actor Terris Brown, along with congratulatory performances by Areumdeuri, a choir made up of multicultural youth, fusion gugak band Granada and multinational K-pop group Ahof.
Outdoor side events included cultural and traditional costume experience booths hosted by foreign embassies in Seoul, a fingerprint key ring-making event and rice cake distribution.
In his commemorative remarks, Justice Minister Jeong Seong-ho emphasized the importance of social integration.
“For Korea to achieve sustainable development, social integration, in which Koreans, overseas Koreans and foreigners understand one another and live together, is more important than ever,” Jeong said.
seungku99@heraldcorp.com
