hankyoreh

By Jung Hwan-bong, staff writer

On March 8, International Women’s Day, survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery Kim Bok-dong, 86, and Gil Won-ok, 84, and the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Korean Council) established the “Nabi [Butterfly] Fund,” promising to use any future compensation they receive from the Japanese government to help female victims of war around the world.

First to make a donation was popular entertainer Lee Hyo-ri. Upon receiving an email from Korean Council co-president Yoon Mee-hyang asking her to be a member of the fund promotion committee, Lee volunteered herself as the fund’s first supporter, saying, “I had been wanting to do something for these women but kept hesitating.”

Students and teachers at Inmyong Girls’ High School in Nam-gu, Incheon, too, have given their support. “Seeing as we’re a girls’ school, our students have a lot of sympathy for the stories of comfort women, so 1,036 out of 1,500 students donated a total of around 589,000 won to the Nabi Fund,” stated 42-year-old teacher Hong In-gi. Teacher Kim Jun-yeong, 34, praised the students, saying, “students in my class voluntarily publicized the Nabi Fund in the cafeteria at lunch time, so a lot of students took part.

"When I helped one old lady move a bundle of waste paper, she gave me 3,000 won," said 24-year-old university student Kim Byeong-u, who donated 43,000 won (about US$40). "I declined it, but she kept pressing it into my hand and so I added this precious 3,000 won to the 40,000 won I had decided to donate to the Nabi Fund."

Ethnic Korean Japanese citizen O U-gyeon, 40, who was born in Osaka and came to Korea three years ago, said, "I found out about comfort women when I joined a gathering of ethnic Koreans in Japan in 1993 in order to learn Korean. Because I’m a woman, too, I sympathize with the pain of female victims of war, so I supported the Nabi Fund."

Korean Council co-president Yoon Mee-hyang said, "I hope that the courage cultivated by the old ladies as they have conducted Wednesday demonstrations for the last 21 years will grow wings thanks to the Butterfly Fund and reach female victims of war around the world as hope, and those that cause wars as a stern warning."

As of April 20, 1,090 people had taken part in relay support for the Nabi Fund, with 55 rounds of donations and around 15.42 million won raised. When its War and Women‘s Human Rights Museum (in Mapo-gu, Seoul), which displays the history of female victims of military sexual slavery, opens on May 5, the Korean Council plans to donate all funds raised by then to Rebecca Masika Katsuva in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. During the civil war in the DRC in 1998, soldiers sexually abused Masika and her two daughters, and murdered her husband. In 1999, as a victim of war, she founded Listening House, with the aim of first hearing the voices of victims. Since then, she has helped around 6,000 female victims of war that experienced the same pain as her.

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