By Diplomacy Journal Lee Kap-soo

The following article was contributed by Natalia Federighi de Cuello, president of ASAS (The Association of Spouses of Ambassadors in Seoul) and concurrently spouse of the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Korea, to the Diplomacy Journal for publication. –Ed.

Ambassador Spouses and their extraordinary program in Korea

“We live in a world that is facing unprecedented challenges. 
Solidarity and compassion must be unprecedented as well”. 
Ban Ki Moon, the 8th Secretary General of the United Nations.

My name is Natalia Federighi de Cuello. As Spouse of the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic, I was elected to serve as President of ASAS, the Association of Spouses of Ambassadors in Seoul.

ASAS is a nonpolitical organisation, seeking to promote relationships and strengthen friendships, a better understanding and cooperation among its members and the peoples of Korea.

ASAS organises events every month to learn more about Korean culture and to give back with various forms of activities some of what Korea gives our countries so generously. 

Being an ambassador spouse gives us access to many existing opportunities. Across our group we can literally open the world to others. Since 2023 one of our key activities is the “ASAS Extraordinary Program” for the children that cannot live with their parents. 

This program includes three different kinds of experiences for the children: 1) hosting them in our homes, 2) going to the welfare homes and arranging cultural events where they live and 3) inviting the children to cultural experiences and events organised by our embassies or by our stakeholders. 

Because there are about 35,000 children living without their parents in Korea, we thought this group could benefit from more attention from ASAS members. Most of these children were abandoned at birth and are not connected to any member of their original families.

Most are growing up in good welfare homes. Most of these are well-equipped with all the material needs and are serviced by very good people.

But every child needs the emotional care and the environment that only a family can provide, and we want to help and contribute to the work the Korean institutions do. 

1) Hosting the children in our homes and Residences gives them the opportunity to experience the interaction with a family and its members. 

The Lithuanian Ambassador Spouse Mme. Daiva Šlepavičienė hosted twice at the Lithuanian Residence a group of girls from “Dream Tree” welfare centre for an Easter activity.

The Tanzanian Ambassador Spouse Mme. Chaba Rhuwanya and Vice President of ASAS prepared an Eid lunch and beautiful table in her garden with a red Masai tablecloth and delicious Tanzanian traditional food for the girls of the Sundukwon welfare center. They enjoyed every detail that was prepared with love for them.

The Spouse of the Pakistani ambassador, who is also the Treasurer of ASAS, is teaching English every week to a group of girls from Dream Tree welfare home through her volunteering in Open Arms (www.theopenarms.org). She invited those girls to her house for games in the garden and dinner.

I have also invited a group of girls from Sundukwon a couple of times to my place for lunch too. We had a family lunch together, played the piano, went for a walk… I showed them the Buddhist temple close to my house and they were delighted discovering the colours and lotus flowers. My kids read books in English to them and played in the swimming pool together.

International families are very special and unique for them. The language barrier we overcome thanks to our Korean friends that join us and translate our conversations.

By spending time together, we want to bring the world to those children and increase their awareness about different cultures, their interest on languages and learning about the world. We believe they can have a brighter future and want to help them to have bigger dreams.

Our children and husbands are also involved and caring for them. My children collected books from the SFS-British School library and toys from their classmates and donated them to Dream Tree for the Korean Lunar New Year. My husband had an aged-out intern in his Embassy and is organising a photography exhibition to raise funds in support of one of these welfare centers.

2) Hosting cultural events where they live. The spouse of the French ambassador, Mme. Isabelle Bertoux, introduced her country to all of them. Lots of wonderful activities about France were organised. They tried French crêpes with homemade strawberry jam, learned some words in French and created good memories. The spouse of the Ambassador of Côte d’Ivoire, Mme. Marlene B. Djedje, also participated. 

Many of our Korean friends that were involved in our events, developed their own programs in support of the children as Mrs. Julia Kim Board President of GCEL who participated in the presentation about France, and developed afterwards educational workshops for the children (on food therapy or Rubik’s cube) with her network of Korean members.

Last December a big group of Ambassador Spouses together with Mrs. Choi, the wife of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo prepared gifts of love for them. They welcomed us with a Korean tea ceremony, and we prepared for them a little concert. When the flutist Ms. Jung Yoon-Hee, played a traditional Korean song all the girls started singing spontaneously in unison. It was a moment of shared peace and emotional connection. Ms. Jung Yoon-Hee is teaching regularly flute to 3 of the girls now. And the Cellist Seung Ah Hong who also played that day invited the girls to her concert in Seoul Arts Center. 

We have been as well to a Tea Ceremony place that was created for the aged-out girls from Sundukwon called Ekam so they can earn their living through this business, and we will help them to promote it. It is an oasis of peace and calm close to the Royal Palace. 

3) Inviting the children to experiences and making them feel happy, stronger and special. Since those wonderful children have been dealing with more struggles than other kids, we seek cultural opportunities for them and invite them to concerts. The healing power of art and music “give them wings to fly”, as former ballerina and Little Angels founder, Mme. Julia Moon, said. 

We are thankful to our Korean stakeholders and friends that always give invites for the children to important performances. Many of the children went to a musical or concert for the first time in their lives: Le Cirque du Soleil donated us 200 tickets for “Alegria” performance in December 2022 thanks to the main clown Pablo.

The Korean Chamber Orchestra invited them to a concert of young pianist Justus Friedrich Eichhorn thanks to Mme. Yoon Hee Cho Spouse of former Foreign Minister Park Jin, or to the Gaon Soulist concert where disabled musicians played beautifully, thanks to their director Mme. You-young Kim.

The Harvard Redcliffe Orchestra invited 20 children to their concert in the Lotte Concert Hall thanks to Joon Hyon President of the Harvard Business School Alumnae Association in South Korea. The Little Angels invited twice a big group of children to their marvellous and magical Korean performance “Harmony”.  

The Seoul Arts Centre invited them to “A Square World” show, and the Concertmaster Mr. Min-kyun Kim of the Korean National Symphony Orchestra is a big supporter of the idea of bringing the classical music to those children.

Our Embassy activities also are shared with them. The Italian Embassy has invited the children that cannot live with their parents to a workshop about water and brought a famous actor interpreting Arlecchino to the welfare center.

The Mexican Ambassador Spouse Mme. Regina Flores invited a group of girls from Sundukwon to visit the Mexican famous sailboat Cuauhtémoc. The Russian Ambassador Spouse Mme. Maria Zinovieva invited young adults from Dream Tree and Life Together to a wonderful concert in the embassy performed by talented Art Most musicians. 

The designer Mme. Kwangja Kim invited us to her fashion show to fundraise for the studies of one girl. Some of the older girls participated in the show with her beautiful, designed handbooks together with the Ambassador Spouses from Georgia Mme. Tamara Chachua ASAS Secretary, Turkmenistan Mme. Mahri Durdyyeva and Belarus Mme. Marina Kozhurova. 

Together with the Korean Legacy Committee we celebrated the Mandela Day. The children that cannot live with their parents volunteered in support of the senior citizens preparing fruit cups that ASAS sponsored with Mme. Andrea Jancarkova the Ambassador Spouses of Czech Republic, Mme. Amina Bensabri from Algeria and Mme. Chaba Rhuwanya ASAS Vicepresident and Spouse from Tanzania. 

Those experiences were very positive for the children without families, for their awareness of different cultures and for not feeling isolated.

To ensure that they are resilient citizens that can build healthy and successful lives despite the trauma of abandonment, they need to have at least one responsible caring adult consistently in their lives. We encourage all of you that can contribute in one or another way to support the children of Korea. We have the chance to show our solidarity and compassion and be a role model for them.