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Family Care Foundation Newsletter: Volume 2 -- No. 2 -- June 1998 Ton-a-Month Club Tackles North Korean Starvation "Helping Hands/Korea" is a multi-faceted missionary outreach program based in Seoul, South Korea. One of their programs, the "Ton-a-Month Club," was featured in the April 26 edition of the Pacific "Stars and Stripes" newspaper, excerpts of which are reprinted here by permission: By Louis Arana
SEOUL — Tim Peters knows that the ton of grain he buys and sends to North Korea each month won’t feed many of the starving people there. Peters is a volunteer American Red Cross caseworker at Yongsan Garrison and a missionary in Seoul. He said Pyongyang officials often stop aid workers from getting food to where it’s needed. That angers him. "Millions of people could be dying," he said. "I can’t sit by and not help just because there’s a chance that some of the food will be diverted." So Peters has started a grassroots push, the Ton-a-Month Club, to help the country’s relief agencies trying to get food to the hungry. His aim is to get members to buy one ton of food each month to send to the North. Peters takes $200 a month from his family budget to help. With each shipment of grain, "I also send a prayer so it will fall into the right hands," he said. He said his club has only a handful of members, but they manage to send four tons of food to North Korea each month. "We’re just scratching the surface, but even a little bit can go a long way," he said. He added that he hopes the Ton-a-Month Club’s effort will encourage others to help.
The Buddhist Sharing Movement, based in Seoul, said in a report last month that since August 1995, the famine has killed about three million North Koreans. Peters said his efforts are not a political statement. "I just felt a personal responsibility to see if I could alleviate some of the suffering. There are children, elderly and handicapped people dying on the vine up there," he said. "We must do something to help them." About 80 percent of the club’s food gets into North Korea, he said. The other 20 percent is payment to North Korean border guards for passage. It bothers Peters that the North Korean military might get some of the grain. "It’s a dilemma anybody with a conscience fights," he said. But Peters can’t stop sending food. "We do the best we can in a very difficult situation to relieve suffering," he said, "and we pray desperately that it won’t fall into the wrong hands."
Family Care Foundation was founded at
the beginning of 1997. A Word from Our Executive Director In this edition of our newsletter, I’d like to explain our Mission Support and Humanitarian Services Program (MSHSP). Currently, Family Care Foundation seeks and provides funding for over 60 individual projects in nearly 25 countries. By operating in partnership with successful projects worldwide, Family Care Foundation accomplishes our exempt purposes in a much quicker and more efficient way than might otherwise be possible. The bulk of the administration is handled at our headquarters, freeing project managers to dedicate all of their time to their hands-on programs. An added benefit is that our administrational costs remain exceptionally low. In the recently-completed audit of our first year of operations (1997), Family Care Foundation spent less than 8% on administrational costs, with the vast majority of funds going towards direct program services. We feel this is exceptional value for those who have invested their charitable dollars with Family Care Foundation. Projects that you have seen featured in Family Care Foundation’s previous newsletters are all currently operating as umbrella projects under our MSHSP program. Our goal is to have up to 150 such projects operating by the end of 1998. We have been gratified and overwhelmed at the tremendous support that you, our donors, have provided for these Family Care Foundation projects. This three-way partnership between you, our project managers and the Foundation administration is providing for rapid growth, solid accomplishment, and most importantly, many changed lives. Thank you very much for making it possible. If any of you know of worthy projects that could benefit from operating in partnership with Family Care Foundation, please contact us. We are eager to provide whatever support we can to help those who are giving their lives in service to others. Thank you very much for your continued support. We greatly appreciate you and look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Lawrence Corley "Bridge to Cuba," part of Tampa Family Missions FCF project in Florida has been taking humanitarian aid and a message of hope to the people of Cuba. Project Manager Jasper Rogers reports on some of their recent activities. Dear Friends, We are thrilled by how much has been accomplished in the last several months. As always, we’re very thankful to our supporters, without whom much of our work would not be possible. Since our last trip to Cuba, we’ve contacted several clinics and individuals that have donated cases of basic medical supplies, medicines and equipment for use by our adopted maternity hospital in Cienfuegos, Cuba. The hospital recently asked us if we could help them obtain a Laproscopic System. The owner of a company that sells these $35,000 machines donated one to the hospital for a minimum price of $2,500. This sum was subsequently paid for with the generous gifts of two other charitable donors. The equipment is now packaged and ready for delivery! Another supporter owns an ocean-going vessel and wants to help deliver this equipment and supplies to the hospital in Cuba. He will be taking our team along with the supplies. Ten of us will be going, including several young people who are in training with us. As you can imagine, we are very excited about this upcoming trip. The hospital staff has told us that having this new equipment is a dream come true. They are very dedicated and thankful to have better tools so that they can more effectively help their people. Again, we thank all of you who make our work of reaching the needy in Cuba possible. Your support is invaluable. God bless you! Project Km 21—Transforming a Brazilian Slum For the past two years, a group of volunteers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, have been working in a slum community that lacks even the most essential human needs. Thanks to the support of local businesses and the tireless labors of the program workers, this project is transforming the neighborhood, helping nearly 120 families gain hope for the future. Charlotte Hopper heads a team of twelve missionaries that make weekly visits to this slum, commonly named Kilometer 21. She recently wrote, "We soon saw the need to involve the local community leaders to help them assist their own people. As a first step, we organized a committee of local residents, and encouraged them to decide which families need and deserve our help the most. "We also assisted them in forming an official association of residents. This puts them in a much stronger position when petitioning their local government to provide better water, sewage and electrical services. (At present they only have illegal water and electricity connections, and open sewage canals.)"
Every week Charlotte goes to the large Sao Paulo central market where merchants donate crates of vegetables and fruit that she then brings to the slum. Once a month, 200 of the most needy children receive one kilo of powdered milk and each of the 40 most poverty-stricken families receives a basic food basket—families who didn’t know where their next cup of rice would come from and children who never had milk.
Neighborhood residents say that there is already more giving and helping between families and less violence in the streets. They credit this to the organizational efforts of the project volunteers, as well as to their willingness to visit with and counsel families on a regular basis. Charlotte is enthusiastic about all the improvements. She writes, "Mud and filth have been turned into cement floors. A sewer system has already been started which, when finished, will eliminate the present open sewer canals that run between wooden shacks. Abandoned children are bathed and groomed to come to the meetings. But perhaps most importantly, people who had lost all hope have begun to care again and believe that if they contribute what they can, it will make a difference."
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