A Place to Call Home: Sung Bin Girls Home

Open since 1952, Sung Bin Girls Home in Gwangju is a children-centered group home for girls. Affiliated with the Gwangju YWCA, Director Lim Yaeng Lam makes sure the girls home provides a welcoming home for girls without families to live comfortably until they reach adulthood.

Life At Sung Bin Girls Home

With 55 girls aged one to 19, Sung Bin Girls is a lively place. There are six living facilities, in which girls are grouped according to age, a cafeteria where meals are enjoyed, a multipurpose room for events, music and studying, staff offices and more.

The residences are laid out in similar fashion to a college dormitory. Roughly eight girls share an apartment-style dorm with four separate bedrooms, two girls to a room. Each bedroom is comfortable, providing beds, closet space and a desk. In the middle is the common area, consisting of a kitchen, living room and two bathrooms. Each apartment also has an office for the social worker, or aunt. Each aunt works in 24-hour shifts and watches over the girls’ needs, cooking meals and managing things like sleep, study and play time.

On school days, the girls home can be relatively quiet as over 70 percent of the girls attend middle and high school. During this time, the younger girls are watched over by their room mothers and other staff. But after school and on weekends and holidays, the girls home can be a busy place. Programs and events are a huge aspect of life here, and they include everything from art and culture, religion, safety, social community programs, and emotional therapy. Sung Bin even provides a program to help young adults who have left the girls home and are finding their way on their own. Events are also planned for the children. Among others, there is an annual Christmas event, summer vacation event, and samgyeopsal party.

Not only do the various programs offer enrichment, but they also help the girls get into their preferred type of high school. In Korea, there are two distinct types of high schools: those that prepare students for university and those that train students in vocations they can use immediately after graduation. The girls are encouraged to develop many skills and ultimately choose their own path. Director Lim says, “I want to concentrate on helping them by respecting their own will and what they want.”