2005-2162

Global Korea
volunteers to build schools, teach and help local
citizens.
As part of the program, Korean supporters
can form individual connections with specific
children to communicate with them and offer
aid. The NGO has also been developing wells to
supply clean water, training farmers, developing
agricultural areas and dispatching doctors.
Provided by KFHI
When a strong earthquake rattled a village
on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, in early
October, the organization dispatched medical
staff to treat the injured. Earlier this year, Food
for the Hungry finished digging a well in a
town in Kenya, resolving a water shortage.
What differentiates Korea Food for the
Hungry International from other relief organizations
is that it sends donations and other
funds directly to the people in charge of aid
programs overseas without going through any
international administrative body such as the
United Nations. By doing so, the organization
has minimized “indirect costs,” Chung says
proudly. He himself encourages the local divisions
he helped establishing to create their own
independent funding systems.
Korea Food for the Hungry International
was launched in 1989 as a Korean branch of
Food for the Hungry, which was established by
Dr. Larry Ward in 1971. It became the first
Korean aid group to help the needy abroad.
Chung set up the group after retiring as an
executive at the Federation of Korean Industries,
a business lobby. Inspired by a Christian
minister and the organization’s present director,
Yoon Nam-joong, Chung gave up his plan
to leave for Japan as a Christian missionary
with his wife and instead established KFHI.
The group started with seed money of $50,000
donated by a private relief group in Japan, and
Chung’s fund-raising efforts led to 180 million
won in donations in the initial year. Now the
organization runs on an annual budget of 100
billion won ($86 million).
KFHI turned its attention to the needy
inside the country in 1993. A year later, it started
helping North Koreans, sending medical
equipment to a hospital in Pyongyang. So far,
11 billion won worth of aid has gone to the
North. Currently the group allocates about 70
percent of its annual budget to aid businesses
abroad and 30 percent to help inside Korea.
By Seo Ji-eun
The head of KFHI, Chung Jungsup
is giving tips about cultivating
crops to an African farmer.
(left)
A Korean medical staff dispatched
by the organization
is treating patient in Uganda.
(far left)
December 2009 korea 35