Nerine, the South African girl who got injured in the fire is still in the ICU. She has shown no real improvement and some other complications have developed.
The medical costs are rising and it will be difficult for the parents to cover everything. They want to give the best medical treatment for her but as we all know this can be expensive. If you feel like making a donation to help them then please contact me here on facebook. It is possible for me to collect donations from people living in Mokpo and then pass it on to the family. If you live in another city or it is not possible to meet with me then give me time until tomorrow to get the relevant banking details where you can donate money.
The same message has been posted on Dave's. I've PM'd the poster for donation information, and contacted the woman's go-between in Seoul, and will pass the information along as soon as i get it. The family will need as much help with medical and travel expenses as we can give, so let's be generous.
One of the reasons information has been slow to get out is because not many people in Mokpo know her. She wasn't hired through the Jeollanam-do education office, as most public teachers are, and thus didn't have the ready-made social network of orientation and meetings.
I was forwarded the family's phone number in Korea as the Gwangju News would like me to write something up for the next issue. Given the circumstances, though, I won't be calling as soon as I had planned.
One suggestion I made to the local education office, which announced it may start conducting optional apartment inspections to see how safe our living quarters are, is to find some way to provide us with reliable, quality smoke detectors. After Bill Kapoun died I was writing a piece for the GN on the case and the fundraising efforts, and wanted to find out where people in Jeollanam-do could buy smoke detectors. None of the big box stores had them, either in stock or online, and even Gwangju's answer to Techno Mart, "Kumho World," didn't have any either. This is the most basic of items, yet one of the most hard-to-find. Like the aversion to seat belts here, I'm puzzled by the lack of fire prevention measures in many buildings and apartments.
7 comments:
In case of fire in my apartment, I have a box labeled for emergency escape. Inside is a sort of hook and rappelling cord that I should connect to a bolt stuck in my wall... I guess this is standard emergency procedure for the officetels.
My friend was trapped in her apartment in Shidae in Suncheon. Emergency services were able to reach her after a harrowing morning of calling people (Shidae apartment services hung up on her) and trying to make the situation understood by her co-teacher. Not a fun situation for her at all.
I've been hounding M. too for more information on how to donate money. We're thinking of using the funds from our apartment/garage sale to help her out.
If I hear something, I'll let you know.
Information up, if you hadn't noticed.
Those hooks would be a good idea, and I considered buying one after hearing about Bill Kapoun. However, you know what Shidae is like, I doubt it would hold. And, I'd want to test it first, just to be sure it'd hold up my weight . . . I don't think maintenance would appreciate a white guy rapelling out his balcony.
If people are interested I could get a bunch and sell them from my shop.
I think that'd be a good idea. They'd probably sell, what do you think?
I will hunt some down and put them in the shop. It would be better if I could get an idea of how many people are interested. I don't want to end up with a bunch of smoke detectors.
Why not start a topic on it on the Facebook page for your shop? I'll put a link up here to direct people there. Leave it up for a few days and get an idea . . . if they sell out quickly you can always get more . . . or you could make a waiting list or something.
My Korean friend said that the fire stared on a couch in the hallway. The man flung his cigarrette on that couch. So having a smoke detector in the hallway is a good idea. She was in an Officetel in Okamdong in Mokpo, which is the new area of Mokpo. I am surprised that new buildings there don't come with a rope for escape, but that is besides the point. I mean, who expects a fire to be raging outside one's door? I would have opened it.
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