Last Saturday, 20 October,2012, Fr.Shay Cullen began his five–day whirlwind promotional tour in Seoul, South Korea to promote children’s rights and formally launch Preda Fair Trade in Korea. He has been formally invited by the The Beautiful Shop,Fair Trade Department coordinated by Jinhwan Kim and guided by Beom-Taek Lee.
He Joined the NGO rally at Han Park with the Korean NGO’s as part of the Day for the Eradication of Poverty.He donned the thumbs up T-shirt with the participants,with the campaign slogan “STAND UP, TAKE ACTION!”.
On Sunday, 21 October, Fr. Shay was the main celebrant at the packed Franciscan church, the International Parish of Seoul by the kind invitation of the parish Priest Father Giancarlo Faldani.
On Monday, 22 October, Fr. Shay meets the staff of The Beautiful Store and makes a slide show on the work of Preda. The Beautiful Store is a organization that helps the poor and has a Fair trade department headed by Simon J. Kim.This organization was founded by charismatic community leaderPark Won-soon who is now the elected Mayor of Seoul since 2011. In the afternoon, he made his speech on human rights and Fair Trade to the members of KFTO(Korea Fair Trade Organization), followed by questions and a discussion on FairTrade criteria.
On Tuesday, 23 October, Fr.Shay made his formal presentation to “Korean NGO Council for Overseas Cooperation” (KCOC) with Korean representatives and practitioners of Fair Trade in Korea and on Tuesday he will talk to a audience of Catholic development agencies and members of the diocesan clergy and religious.