Alex Jong Ho Lee

Where it started: AsianHub

It started with a folktale. Working with AsianHub in Seoul, I sat with families who had moved to Korea from across Asia and realized how much gets lost when a community can't tell its own story in its own language. I began translating and recording Korean folktales so their children could hear them too. That question (who gets to have their story told?) has driven everything since.

Building something of my own

Watching children in the Philippines, Cambodia, and Laos fall behind without support, I co-founded Angels for the Journey, an NPO that sends tuition assistance and school supplies to families across Southeast Asia. That same year I joined LeadersTimes as a journalist. Two very different things, but the same instinct: if there's a gap, fill it.

Back to school: Seoul National University

Enrolled at SNU to study English Language and Literature, wanting to understand more rigorously how language shapes power. University gave me a framework for what I had already been doing on the ground, and a community of people who pushed me to think harder about it.

A year of showing up

2024 was less about founding things and more about being present. I translated political corruption coverage for MediaWatchTV so Korean stories could reach international audiences. I designed t-shirts and placed flower wreaths at the UN Memorial Cemetery to honor soldiers most people have forgotten. I started showing up every week at the Mission Center for Migrants in Seoul, making food, organizing holidays, sitting with people who had crossed oceans and ended up with very little support on the other side.

Cambodia: Lumen Education Program

I went to Cambodia because I heard about children who had no books in their language and no library within reach. I stayed to co-write them. Working with local youth and students abroad, we published multilingual children's books rooted in Cambodian oral tradition, built three libraries in local churches, and donated over 2,500 books, including a collection to the National Library of Cambodia. It was the most concrete thing I have ever done, and the most humbling.

Jurio: the same problem, a different tool

Cambodia taught me that the most dangerous kind of exclusion is the kind that looks invisible. When workers can't read a contract, or don't know they have rights, or can't ask for help because no one speaks their language. In April 2026 I started building Jurio: a bilingual Korean/English app that puts labor rights information into the hands of migrant and industrial workers in Korea. Same mission as always. New medium.