A life lived for others

[CAMPUS_ASIA Mode3::SUAE_ASIA 2024]

CAMPUS_Asia::SUAE_Asia Program is an intensive international academic exchange program between universities in Asia as the platform for dual degrees between the Architecture Department of Kyushu University, Tongji University, and Pusan National University. This collaboration aims to enhance the education of urban and architectural environments by developing knowledge and skill to achieve sustainable cities and buildings in Asia. The program is also a Korea UNESCO ESD(Education for Sustainable Development)'s Official Project assigned by the Korean National Commission of UNESCO. CAMPUS_Asia::SUAE_Asia Program currently extends the platform covering Asian countries, focusing on present urban and architectural issues and enlarging educational opportunities to promote resiliency and sustainability in architectural design. It also promotes accessibility and inclusive urban design and development, which are being ardently addressed in UNESCO events, outcomes, and publications. The world demands greater cooperation and diversity. Therefore, society, cities, and people need to be adequately responsive to the direction of how the world is moving. Through a wide range of activities, such as Summer and winter school design workshops, CAMPUS_Asia::SUAE_Asia Program promotes opportunities for exploring adequately responsive alternatives to the existing urban and architectural environment through cooperative cooperation between students from various countries.

[International WORKSHOP 2024: A life lived for others]

- In memory of two nuns, Marianne Stöger and Margaritha Pissarek

The East Asian society of the modern era is becoming more and more personalized. Competition is intensifying as distance from each other increases. The lives of two nuns, Marianne and Margaritha, were recently introduced on air, touching and shocking Koreans. Their dedicated service reminds us of the values we have forgotten, the value of love for others. The two young nuns, who had just graduated from a nursing school in Austria, came to Korea in the early 1960s, one of the poorest countries in the world at that time, to care for Hansen's disease patients on a far remote island. On the isolated island, called Sorokdo, their service lasted not a year or two, even more than 40 years.

After the Korean War, Koreans were quarantining patients with Hansen's disease on this island because people were afraid of contagiousness, or because the patients didn't look good. Hansen‘s disease was also called teenaged disease. This is because the early onset of the disease, in many cases at a young age. Boys and girls with leprosy were the ones who should be loved by their parents, so for them, mother's love was more desperate than anyone else, and Marienne and Margaritha took over the role.

Done after everyday’s work what they have done for more 40 years, preparing breakfast at 5 a.m. to evening treatment at 9 p.m., on one early winter’s day in 2005, two nuns left the island to their homeland Austria, leaving only one letter. Below is the last letter the two nuns left on their way back to Austria.

"The time has come to fold our tents. We have often told our friends that we should go home when we can't work properly and put pressure on people here. We think it's time to put that into practice. We are not good enough foreigners, but we have received great love and respect. Thank you very much to everyone. We apologize and ask for your forgiveness with this letter, which we have made you painful caused by our shortage. Let's always meet in the prayer. Thank you to all, - Marianne and Margaritha.“

Pope John Paul II visited Korea in 1984 and blessed the lives of the two sisters. However, the love of the two nuns spread to Koreans, much later after a film and documentary about them was made recently. Margaritha Pissarek, who used to be called “the Angel of Sorok island”, returned to the arms of God this fall, and Marianne Stöger will soon celebrate her 90th birthday. In Goheung-City, the city government of Sorok island is pariparing to build a memorial for two holy spirits. 2024 Campus Asia Winter Workshop is a realated with the memorial project.

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