NGO in Korea

World vision is one of the most popular NGOs in Korea because one writer, Bi-ya Han, became famous with her many travel journals. During her around-the-world trip, she found many different life styles, and tragedy and sorrow which are cause by poverty and war. She introduced many stories and her opinions, and many Korean read her books and started to think about developing countries. Bi-ya Han entered World Vision after her around-the-world trip, and kept introduce stories in international emergency aid. Many students were started to be interested in international emergency aid, and had dreams about it. Many people became sponsors of child in other country who is starving and dying. Many actor and actress also joined this program, and also advertised it. Other similar NGOs also became famous with World Vision in Korea. Therefore, World Vision is very famous in Korea, and I want to write about it.

Biya Han in Zimbabwe

World Vision was founded by one man, Bob Pierce, who was the Reverend in 1950. In 1947, Rev. Pierce met one lady during a trip to China, and she introduced him to one child who was abandoned. She could not raise the child, so Rev. Pierce gave his five dollars and promised her that he would give the same amount of money each month to help the child. After it happened, he began to build an organization that can help the world’s children, and the first sponsorship program began in Korea where thousands of orphans were suffering after the Korean War.

World Vision was founded by the Reverend, so it contains Christian’s color, too. However, they do not force their religion, and their goal is not the changing people’s religions. They keep Christian’s heart, and work for children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. World Vision has three major parts for their goal. The first subject is transforming communities. World Vision partners with communities work together to improve their lives and overcome their poverty or troubles in their lives. World Vision offers many knowledge and sources for improving their communities, and many programs, which are education, health, agriculture, water and sanitation, are also offered, and World Vision expect that communities can keep improve their lives even after they leave. Second subject is humanitarian and emergency affairs. World Vision supports the people or refugees when natural disaster or war was caused due to save life and reduce people’s pain, and help them to come back their normal lives as soon as possible. World Vision also research about high-risk area before something is happened, and prepare for disaster. Third subject is advocacy. World Vision takes the voices of the people and communities, which are living in poverty and do not have power. There are many unfair policies, systems and thinking, and these make many people to live in poverty, so World Vision empowers communities to know about their unfair situation to demand their right.

People can participate in World Vision through various ways. People can participate with one time donation, but the most famous program is 1:1 sponsorship program. People can sponsor a child or family who are specifically connected with them. Sponsorship program is not a just one time donation, but it is a continuous help program that are needed only 35$ per month. If we endure several cups of coffees in Starbucks and several times of fabulous dinners, then one child who are living in other country can use drink clean water, eat normal meals and keep studying for finishing the minimum required education instead of working for his family. People, who joined this sponsorship, can write a letter for their connected child, and they even can send some presents for the child. Sometimes the children write a letter for their sponsor who is new family. This is not a regular donation because people can feel love and worth more. Therefore, many people join the sponsorship program of World Vision because small amount money is not a burden, but continuous support can change one’s life, and interestingly, this child sponsorship occupy approximately half of the funding for World Vision’s program.

World Vision consist of over one hundred countries’ groups. Each World Visions in different countries follow same mission and value. World Vision International (WVI) was established in 1977 to coordinate all different countries partner, and its offices are located in London, Geneva and etc. World Vision also has local offices in each continent; for example, the office of South Africa is located in Lusaka, Zambia.

Each World Vision’s groups in different countries are dealing with different problem. Although Korea World Vision is keep develop, some people doubt this World Vision has no relation with Christian’s missionary work and no problem with using money. However, World Vision’s popularity in Korea is very meaningful because Korean was the first beneficiary, and after 60 years, they turned to the country that helps other countries. Now, Korea World Vision is the fourth scale country that support abroad of whole World Visions. Furthermore, Korea is the only country that was changed from beneficiary country to assistant country.   



The nuclear accident in Japan

Hello, everyone. This is a wonderful weekend, and we could start it earlier because of TOEFL. Today, I want to talk about the Japan’s earthquake and the nuclear accident because this is very serious problem in the world. Korea is very close to Japan, and California is also influenced because of wind.

         On March 11^th 2011, the horrible earthquake was happened in Japan’s eastern coast. It was a 9.0 magnitude, and caused the disaster of over 10m tsunami, and because of it, more than 15,000 people were died, 9,121 people were missing, and over 125,000 buildings were also destroyed and damaged included one airport. Tsunami was not simply sea water. It invaded the land with ships, cars, and even houses, which were fired. Cars tried to escape, but water was faster than them. Many villages were destroyed, and especially Tohoku was totally destroyed. The earthquake and tsunami were a real shocking disaster, and it officially named the Great East Japan Earthquake.

         There was nuclear power plant that consists of six boiling water reactors in Fukushima Daiichi, which is located in Japan’s eastern seashore. After the earth quake and tsunami hit the eastern of Japan, four of six reactors were damaged and all nuclear power plants were automatically shut down. However, the situation had been getting worse. Fukushima nuclear power plants were starting to be shown problems; the reactor cooling systems that remove the heat of nuclear power plant were failed, and emergency generators were also stopped by tsunami seawater of 14 meters. Therefore, it caused nuclear meltdown, and explosions of hydrogen gas from the reactors. Radiation was released, and Japan evacuated large area near the nuclear power plant. However, radiation was already released, and radioactive cesium was above legal limit. The nuclear accident was issued in the whole world because radiation could be flowed by water and airs though the wind, and the disaster of the nuclear accident was continued.

         The nuclear accident in Japan was issued, and many people tried to find the reason of the disaster. Only few people said that this accident was caused by nature, so it was not anybody’s fault. However, many different opinions also appeared. In fact, it was not caused by only nature. Japanese government was criticized by many people because of their responses that were always too slow and changeable; for example, USA government offered to help, but Japan refused it, and Japan did not want to close the nuclear power plant, so decision that was using the seawater to remove the heat instead of the failed cooling systems was delayed, and it caused meltdown. Moreover, Japan was already warned about the nuclear power plants that could not withstand powerful earthquake two years ago by the international nuclear watchdog. However, the issue of the nuclear power plant that has many problems and risks should be discussed again. Many people believe that nuclear power is clean and safe as claim of some people who are involved in nuclear power, but it is not true. The nuclear power is not safe and clean at all, and it is not energy that protects the earth from global warming. The nuclear power is threatening the mankind and it remains billion of radioactive matter, which could have influence on the future for a long time. The nuclear power always has a risk, and it cannot be protected perfectly. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident was not caused by nature, and it was already announced disaster.

         Many countries try to reduce or remove nuclear power plants, and especially German decided to remove all nuclear power plants in German during 10 years. We should think about nuclear power again, and watch the nuclear power plants in Japan.

Zambia

 Today, I want to introduce about Zambia because I am interested in Zambia.

 Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, with a tropical climate and consists mostly of high plateau, and it is located east of Angola and south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital city of Zambia is Lusaka, and the official language is English.However, there are approximately 72 languages spoken in Zambia and especially, Bemba, Kaonda, Lunda, Luvale and Nyanja are commonly spoken. More than 50% people are Christian, and Muslims and Hindus make up between 24% and 49%. People who follow traditional African beliefs take a very small percentage. The population of Zambia is 13,881,336, and growth rate is 3.062% (2011 est.) which is the 11st growth rate in the world. From 0 to 14 years take 46.7%, 15-64 years take 50.8% and over 65 years take 2.5%. The population of Zambia has been effected by excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates. Zambia’s population is concentrated around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt to the northwest.    
 Zambia has a beautiful water falls, which is one of the most beautiful water falls in the world. This water falls called the Victoria falls, and there are 1,708 meters wide, so it makes the largest curtain of water in the world. The Victoria falls is located in Southern Africa on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe. However, I like to call it Mosi-o-Tunya instead of the Victoria because Mosi-o-Tunya is the name that local people call. It means 'the smoke that thunders'. The Victoria is the name that David Livingstone gave to falls because of his Queen, which is Queen Victoria. David Livingstone was Scottish missionary and explorer, and he is the man that the first European recorded to see the 'Mosi-o-Tunya'. After he found the 'Mosi-o-Tunya', the British came to Zambia for their benefit, and you can think about European imperialism in it. Therefore, I like 'Mosi-o-Tunya' more.

 I went to Zambia last summer, but I could not go to the falls, so I hope I can go to Zambia again someday.



Je-ju Island

 Hello, everyone :)

 This is my first post in my blog, and I want to tell about Jeju Island in Korea.

 Jeju Island is a very beautiful island and it was listed UNESCO World Natural Heritage in 2007. Jeju Island is the largest island in South Korea, and many Korean visits Jeju for honeymoon or travel. My parents came to Jeju in their honeymoon, too. :)

 The island is 73km wide and 41km long, and it was created 700 to 1,200 thousand years ago when lava spewed from a sub-sea volcano and surfaced above the waters. Then 100 to 300 thousand years ago, another volcanic eruption formed Mt. Halla. Mt. Halla rises in the center of Jeju to 1950m above sea level. The final volcanic eruption created Baekrok-dam,the crater lake, at the summit mountain, again.

 Jeju island is much warmer than land, and natural environment has been preserved well. Because of the weather, we could see many different kind of plants and animals.

 Jeju island has different culture, Jeju is very unique. For example, they had different traditional clothes, different style of life and house and different language. Dialect of Jeju is hard to understand for Korean, too. "Samda" which means "Three abundance" is a famous term in Jeju. Three things are rocks, wind and women. Jeju has many rock because of eruption. The wind is also very strong, and last thing which is women shows us that many men were lost at sea. "Sammu" is also famous. It means "Three non-existence". Three non-existence thins are thief, gate and baggar. Old Juju people regarded "deligence, thrift, interdependence" as their virtue. They didn't steal or bag,so they did not need to make a gate.

This is a "Dol Hareubang". Dol Hareubang is a stone statue presenting Jeju island. You can see many Dol Hareubang in Jeju Island!! :))