From Korea to the world.

Venerable Mother Park Chung-Soo, the head of a Buddhist temple in Seoul, is a money-raiser extraordinaire. Over the last 11 years she has persuaded her countrypeople to give gifts totalling US$2.5 million for projects in 35 countries.

Park Chung-Soo was already involved in a Catholic charity that looked after lepers in Korea when she attended an international conference in Switzerland. She warmed to the sense of unity she found among the 500 participants from more than 50 nations. But when it was suggested that she might like to meet some of the Japanese present, she hesitated. She had been born during the Japanese occupation of Korea, and felt deep hurt and bitterness about the way her compatriots had been treated. She wanted nothing to do with Japan.

However, a friend suggested to her that the world harmony she glimpsed at the conference depended on inner change and sacrifice. She decided to try to overcome her hatred and meet the Japanese. The encounter widened her perspectives. `When I put my feelings against Japan behind me,' she says, `I opened my heart to the needs of the world.'

The projects for which she has raised money have been as varied as they have been numerous--schools and hospitals, clothes and famine relief, orphans and even amputees in Afghanistan.

At one point she received a letter from a British friend, who had just heard a talk about the desperate need for mine clearance in Cambodia. The friend asked if she knew anyone in Korea who did this sort of work and might play a part. Park Chung-Soo replied that she knew no one, and thought that was the end of the matter.

But she couldn't stop thinking about those who were wounded or killed when they walked innocently into a minefield. She wrote to her British friend, `If you can find any organization that clears minefields and can tell me how many mines can be cleared for $1,000, I will provide some money for them.' She ended up raising $100,000 for the Halo Trust.

Her latest project is raising money in South Korea to help the starving children of North Korea. The former President of North Korea took great pride in his Juche (self-reliance) programme for his country, but it failed to provide for the people's most basic needs. Park Chung-Soo managed to get into the country--no mean achievement for a South Korean--and set up channels for sending food and vitamins to the children.

One of the effects of North Korea's Juche programme has been to cut the country off from the world. For the situation to change, North Koreans will need to be ready to admit that they need help--and people in other countries will need the openness and warmth of heart to break through to them. This is something Park Chung-Soo knows all about.