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Overview
This flier was created by the Korean Medical Students Association during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. It is in Korean and explains how to use medical services during Alert Levels 3 and 4.
During the early phase of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, as various English-language posters outlining important hygiene measures were released, Drs Aram Kim and Terry Kim began to consider the obstacles faced by non-English-speaking Koreans (for instance, new migrants or the elderly) in accessing accurate information from the government in Aotearoa New Zealand. Aram, who is part of the Korean Community Wellness Society, reached out to Samantha Bennett (Asian, Migrant & Former Refugee Health Gain Manager I Waitematā DHB and Auckland DHB) to discuss the issue and agreed to organise the translation of some existing English-language posters into Korean. They subsequently collaborated with Grace Ryu (Operations Manager, Asian Health Service, WDHB) and Dr Terry Kim, Chair of Korean Medical Student Association (KMSA), to create and distribute the translated posters.
The translation work was done by several members of the Korean Medical Student Association, overseen by Terry. Formatting was also done by some members of the group alongside friends of Terry. The collective effort was largely co-ordinated over email and Facebook chat. Once the posters were translated, Terry sent them back to Samantha and also uploaded them to various Korean community portals such as Sunday Sisa, nzkoreapost.com and "NZ Story (뉴질랜드 이야기)", a large Facebook group for Korean New Zealanders.
Korean Medical Students Association
The Korean Medical Students Association (KMSA) was established in 2019 by Dr Terry Kim and a group of medical students who wanted to connect Korean students in Auckland and Otago medical schools and contribute their skill to the wider community. During the lockdown, the group was very active working on various posters and other small requests and needs identified by the wider community. KMSA later joined the Korean Coalition (see below) but most of their translations were produced prior to joining the Coalition. As the Auckland Korean Students Association was producing translations for the Coalition by then, KMSA decided not the duplicate these efforts. The WDHB later sent the group a Certificate of Appreciation for their contributions to the pandemic response.
Korean Coalition
The Korean Coalition was established during the nationwide lockdown during March 2020 when several local Korean community groups came together to help bridge significant gaps in the initial government Covid-19 response for the benefit of people in their communities. Co-ordinated remotely via the popular social media platform KakaoTalk, the Coalition setup enabled the groups to communicate with each other more easily, identify important gaps and recruit each other’s help. By the end of the first nationwide lockdown in April 2020, the group consisted of around 40 people from the following groups: Korean Medical Students Association (now New Zealand Korean Medical Association), Korean Wellness Society, Auckland Korean Students Association, Auckland Korean Society Inc., The Korea Post.