Oxfam, Korea, Vietnam and the UK
I little knew that Oxfam would be the link to bring together Korea, Vietnam and the UK, but I was delighted to take part in a small celebration of a joint project this week.
A charity here called the Beautiful Store has a very similar approach to Oxfam in the UK, raising funds through second hand shops and using the money raised for projects in Korea and overseas. It does not run the overseas projects itself, but instead donates money to Oxfam to help their work. In fact, I had been involved with Beautiful Store here, donating various things to it, but not realising this connection with Oxfam GB. Beautiful Store has donated over £250,000 for Oxfam’s projects in South Asia, and has pledged a further £150,000 this year.
The celebration I mentioned was to mark a project in Vietnam to improve education for girls and minority groups in Lao Cai, a remote region near the border with China. My Vietnamese colleague and I made short speeches to thank Beautiful Store, although for the most part I spoke about the great work that Oxfam has done over the years and continues to do.
You can read more about the project here. It really is such a turn-around that within a generation Korea has moved from being an aid recipient to become a supporter of other countries less prosperous than itself – and that Koreans themselves support ventures like Beautiful Store, which after just seven years in existence now has over 100 stores country-wide.
Posted at 17:46 16 June 2009 by Martin Uden | Comments[0]
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