North Korean Refugees in Peebleshire
This is an amazing story of a girl from Peebles, Scotland who got her town involved in improving the lives of North Korean refugees
IT IS sometimes said that charity starts at home – Peebles girl Shona Maguire began her involvement with a humanitarian project to help refugees when she was half way across the world in South Korea.
But now she hopes to be able to bring some of her new friends back to where she started from.
The 25-year-old campaigner spent 15 months working in Jayoutuh with communist refugees who have fled from the north of the country.
She told the Peeblesshire News: “When I found out about the North Korean refuge and school I started volunteering one night a week.
“It was a shock to learn how horrific their lives have been.
I was also shocked by how little the rest of the world is aware of what they have been through.”
Touched by their plight she began the filming of a documentary to alert others to the suffering experienced by the people she was meeting.
And when folk back home in Peeblesshire heard about the initiative donations flooded across to South Korea to help with the scheme.
What can individual achieve in this world? If you have courage, quite a lot. I look forward to meeting North Koreans with Scottish accents very soon.
