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Blue-eyed doctor with a heart of gold helps needy

Published: 27 Nov. 2009, 20:46

Bae Hyon-jeong

Patients call her the doctor with blue eyes, while she calls them brothers and sisters.

Bae Hyon-jeong - or Marie-Helene Brasseur, as her family members and acquaintances in Belgium know her - has provided free medical services to the needy in Korea for the past 34 years.

Her philanthropic efforts largely flew under the radar of the Korean public until the 63-year-old doctor was chosen as this year’s recipient of the Asan Medal, an annual honor given to medical personnel devoted to saving lives. The Asan Foundation, a charity group run by the Hyundai Group, presented her with the award at a ceremony on Wednesday.

Despite the prestige associated with such a distinction, those who know Bae well say it is just a small amount of recognition given what she has done for Koreans. She has reportedly treated 250,000 patients since 1975 at the Jeon Jin Sang Clinic in Siheung-dong, Seoul. Jeon, jin and sang are three Chinese characters that summarize the Catholic spirit of sacrifice, love and joy, respectively.

Bae, a devout Catholic, was initially a nurse in Belgium. In 1969, she joined the Association Fraternelle Internationale, an international lay Catholic charity group. Three years later, she was sent as a medical missionary to Korea.

Bae decided to search for the most needy neighborhood in Seoul, and came across Siheung, an underprivileged area in the suburbs. The late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, who was at the time Seoul’s highest Catholic figure, helped her found a welfare center in Siheung. Along with volunteers, she provided basic medical services to area residents. The welfare center became the Jeon Jin Sang Clinic in 1990 after Bae graduated from the ChungAng University’s medical school with a degree in family medicine.

“She wanted to provide people with more professional medical services, so she went to medical school and managed to study for years in the Korean language,” said You Song-ja, a social worker with the clinic who was also a founding member of the welfare center. “She could have left Korea and volunteered to help people in Africa, as she initially wanted. But she suddenly fell in love with Korea and the Korean people.”

Bae could not be reached for comment for this article, but she gave You a comment to share about receiving the Asan award. “Free medical services would not have been possible without help from volunteers,” You said, quoting Bae. “I just did what I was supposed to do according to the spirit of jeon jin sang.”

By Moon Gwang-lip [[email protected]]