My sister Susie Younger, who has died aged 88, spent much of her life helping poor and disadvantaged people in South Korea; she had moved there from Britain in the late 1950s.
Working mainly with the Roman Catholic church in the city of Daegu, she helped to bring orphan children off the streets, set up a girls’ home and vocational training centre for women, and trained up local people to produce cheap food. In 1969 she wrote a book on her early experiences in Korea, Never Ending Flower.
Although she always remained deeply involved in Korea, Susie later moved to France, where she was based for three decades at the College of the Auxiliaries of the Apostolate in Lourdes, helping Catholic women from Korea and other Asian countries to develop and deepen their faith in preparation for better serving the Catholic church and communities in their home countries.
Susie was the eldest daughter of Sir Kenneth Younger, a Labour MP who served in the 1945-51 Clement Attlee government, and his wife, Betty (nee Stewart). Born in London, Susie did her secondary education at St Christopher school in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. After gaining a PPE degree at Somerville College, Oxford, and a social science certificate from LSE, she spent a year in London as a social worker.
Despite being from a non-religious family, she had become interested in Christianity shortly before going to Oxford, first as an Anglican and then a Roman Catholic. She decided to go to Korea in 1959 after meeting an Austrian Catholic woman, Maria, who was on her way there.
Back then the country was still deeply impoverished after the Korean war, and when the two of them arrived in Daegu they began taking in orphan boys off the streets to prevent them falling into the clutches of criminal gangs. They had both brought some money with them, which they used to support their venture alongside financial help from the Catholic church in Korea.
After a few years, with a Korean colleague, Lucia, Susie established a home in Daegu for poor young girls and women (which still exists), focusing on those at risk of being pulled into prostitution. She also established an integral vocational training centre to teach the women trades such as hairdressing and beauty treatments. In 1964 she secured some land outside the city that she rented free from the local authority, establishing a farm there that trained aspiring farmers to provide cheap food.
She lived in poverty during her early years in Korea, contracting typhoid twice and using up any money she had on her projects. But she was also able to raise cash through her own Susie Younger Korean Trust and grants from charities.
Susie left Korea for Lourdes in the early 70s, but always regarded herself as being under the authority of the Bishop of Daegu. Her role at Lourdes involved her in regular travel back to Korea and to other parts of Asia, particularly the Philippines.
She retired in 2004 and returned to live in Daegu, where she was active in her Catholic community. In 2011 she was given honorary Korean citizenship, and she was still living in Daegu at her death.
She is survived by me, her sister, Lucy, a nephew, Ned, and a great-niece, Juno.
