Many elderly in ‘jjokbang’ left to die alone


After 15 years of volunteering, Hong In-sik is still passionate about helping elderly people living in jjokbang, or tiny rooms that can barely accommodate one person.

Since last year Hong has been the president of a senior volunteer group organized by the Yeongdeungpo District Office in Seoul.

The group of 195 people in their 50s or 60s helps each person in the rundown jjokbang town in Munrae-dong in the district.

In summer the rooms with no proper ventilation become stifling. Since the residents are old, often over 80, they cannot move freely, and barely clean their rooms. Some even suffer from palsy or other illnesses, so that the floor is often hardened with feces and strong odors fill the room.

Hong and her fellow volunteers visit the elderly day and night.

“I once ran to one senior to give her some soup that I had cooked for my family. I suddenly thought of her,” she said.

They took care of the woman for years and held small birthday parties for her. She appreciated their kindness, saying she had never received that treatment even from her family.

Living in conditions with poor sanitation, no medical checks and little care from their family, many of the residents face death alone. Social workers often become the ones who first discover their passings.

“It is heartbreaking when people whom I think of as my parents pass away,” said Hong, whose parents both passed away in their 60s.

Hong found an old man who died right after last year’s Chinese New Year. That time was the coldest in the year. The 70-something man who was paralyzed from the waist down froze to death on the floor while climbing into his bed. Before the tragic incident occurred, Hong and others had cleaned his room, which had not been cleaned for many years, and put an electric blanket on his bed.

“He lived alone and died alone on the cold floor even though he had his family,” Hong said.

These people in the jjokbang village are often left alone by their family due to financial difficulty or relationship conflicts.

Hong and her troop do more than just visit the people; they also counsel those who suffer from depression. The Yeongdeungpo District Office designates senior counselors for elderly people after a more than 200-hour training session.

Many of the people, depressed and feeling entrapped in the small room without much hope, wish to end their lives. But senior counselors give these people a sliver of hope.

“We happen to know an 86-year-old woman who cannot walk down from her home on the third floor of a building due to her back problems. She had not had any chance to meet even one person a day,” Hong said.

She has two sons and a daughter who she said never called or visited.

“She burst into tears when we visited her, and I, too, cried while hugging her.”

They asked a caregiver to visit her every day to deliver her lunch.

Hong won an award the day before her daughter’s wedding in 2009 from the Seoul Metropolitan Government for her devotion into helping the elderly. She once again received the same award in early September this year. Her son married in the same month.

Hong gave credit for her work to the people who have helped her. She said she has so many good people around her, including the residents in the jjokbang village.

Her husband, who is a commercial pilot, supports her work by often driving her to where she volunteers.

The Yeongdeungpo District Office set up a department for senior welfare in 2010 when Cho Gil-hyeong was elected the head of the office. He makes every effort to provide human and financial resources for the group of senior counselors.

Hong said she also wants to thank the counselors, donors, district officials and Korea Exchange, which helped set up the senior counselor program.

She stressed that patience and assimilation are the keys to opening people’s minds.

“Some elderly people often beat volunteer workers who come to help them. You should try hard to truly earn their minds,” Hong said. 

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)