'The Song of May Mothers' General Director Late Kim Dong-chan Receives May Mothers Award

The May Mothers' House announced on the 4th that it has selected the late Kim Dong-chan, Seo Young-sook, an advisory committee member of the International Migration Culture Research Institute, and the Korea Social Survey Research Institute as the recipients of the '17th May Mothers' Award.'

The May Mothers' House has been discovering individuals or organizations recognized for their dedication to protecting democracy and their contributions to inheriting the May spirit since May 1980, and presents the 'May Mothers' Award' annually.

The first individual recipient of the 17th May Mothers' Award, Kim Dong-chan, was born in 1965 and passed away in March this year. Since 1995, he quietly contributed to inheriting the spirit of May 18 through various cultural activities and music performance planning centered on May in Gwangju.

In particular, he is recognized for his role as the general director and producer of the silver disc "Song of the May Mothers," which contains the lives and sorrows of the May Mothers during his lifetime, directing a performance that reminded people of the May spirit through the songs of the May Mothers who lived with the pain of losing their families.

Another individual awardee, Seo Young-sook, head of the Gwangju branch of the Korean Migrant Women Voters Federation and an ethnic Korean from China, is a marriage immigrant settled in Gwangju. She established the 'International Migration Culture Research Institute,' the first of its kind led by marriage immigrants in Gwangju, practicing communication between migrants and natives and contributing to social integration.

Since 2020, Seo has taken the lead in planning the program "We Are Also Gwangju Citizens," which informs marriage immigrant women and their children about the spirit and history of the May 18 People's Uprising in Gwangju.

The organization award recipient, the Korea Social Survey Research Institute, started with the research project "Survey on Gwangju Citizens' Awareness of the May 18 Memorial Projects" and has been publishing research reports based on citizen awareness surveys reflecting various perspectives on May 18.

Late Kim Dong-chan

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