Saejowi (), also known as Saejowi Initiative for National Integration (), operates in Seoul, South Korea, as a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that assists North Korean defectors with settlement in South Korea. Saejowi sponsors programs that provide medical support, job training, and other educational opportunities in order to aid with defector adjustment to South Korean society. Additionally, Saejowi works to encourage civil involvement in the Korean reunification movement, especially among the defector community. The organization hosts programs that facilitate open communication between South Koreans and defectors from North Korea. It has previously worked with the Korean Ministry of Unification, Korea Hana Foundation, and the Community Chest of Korea.
History
Saejowi was first established on October 15, 1988, by Hong, Sa-deok (홍사덕), a former Korean senator and current Acting Representative of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation (민족화해협력범국민협의회). Saejowi was founded with the publication of Hong's book "My Dream, My Challenge" (나의 꿈, 나의 도전), which advocates the reconsideration of Korean reunification among South Koreans.
In March 1991 the Korean Ministry of Unification registered Saejowi as a social movement, and in July 2001 Saejowi was officially registered as a nongovernmental organization. The organization's first resettlement support center for North Korean defectors began operations in 2003. Three years later in 2006, Saejowi opened the first medical support center at the National Medical Center. A year later a call center was established in the same location for refugees with medical questions. In the next six years, three other medical counseling centers were opened in the following locations: Chungnam National University Hospital (2009), Incheon Red Cross Hospital (2011), and the Seoul Medical Center (2012).
Beginning in 2007 Saejowi has hosted coaching sessions for North Korean defectors looking to become professional counselors. In 2012, Saejowi began a domestic violence counseling service that focuses on providing women with information regarding self-defense in sexual and domestic violence situations. In 2013 Saejowi celebrated its 25th anniversary with a special international policy forum held in conjunction with the Hanns Seidel Foundation from Berlin, Germany.
Since March 2009 Dr. Shin, Mi-nyeo has been the acting representative of Saejowi.
Medical support
Since its inception in 1988, Saejowi has worked primarily in the medical community, where it has established medical counseling centers for North Korean defectors in four South Korean hospitals. By the end of 2014, Saejowi had provided medical counseling assistance to approximately 7,500 North Korean refugees.
Saejowi's four medical centers were established to provide medical counseling to supplement and explain professional diagnoses and treatments. The organization's counselors are North Korean defectors, so they are able to describe medical recommendations using the North Korean dialect. The medical counseling offered by Saejowi specifically addresses the following situations: North Korean defectors who arrive in South Korea with untreated physical illness and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), North Korean defectors who are unable to obtain necessary medical treatment because of misunderstandings caused by differences between medical procedures in North and South Korea, and North Korean defectors who experience difficulties understanding medical terms and phrases derived from English and other Western languages.
Job training
In order to help North Korean defectors obtain employment in South Korea, Saejowi provides them with programs that address their physical, psychological, social, and emotional needs. The organization has also created other short-term programs on an as-needed basis, such as a language program initiated in 2010 with the Daewon Foreign Language High School to provide English language training to defectors.