Ton-a-Month
Club "demonstrating
Christ's love and compassion to the famine-stricken people of North
Korea" full-color
version
Greetings! Welcome to the official Web
site for the Ton-a-Month Club, a Christian relief project based
in Seoul, South Korea. Whether you've just stumbled across this
site as you "surfed the Net", or whether you intentionally
searched us out- we're glad you're here! We invite you to read on
and discover just one of the many great things that the Lord is
accomplishing in Asia and around the world!
Who we are:
Why
we are committed to this activity: What
we've accomplished so far: How
can you help? Relief
Updates
And if
you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry, and satisfy the needs
of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and
your night will become like the noonday. Isaiah 58:10 (NIV)
Who we are:
The Ton-a-Month Club is a Christian non-profit famine-relief
program, based in Seoul, Korea, which has been mobilizing food
aid for the most needy civilian casualties of the North Korean
famine since the second half of 1996. Our organization targets
its aid to the most vulnerable segments of the North Korean
society: children under age 6, orphaned children, single mothers
with children, the elderly, and the handicapped.
We accomplish this by using various delivery systems, including
direct shipments to North Korean made by our own volunteers.
Our policy is to utilize whichever delivery system that can
provide the lowest price/per ton of nutritious foods and can
guarantee the most accurate and transparent mode of monitoring
food shipments. We have recently expanded our services to include
assistance and shelter to North Koreans who have fled to other
countries to escape privation in their own country.
Why
we are committed to this activity:
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Dr. Astrid Heiberg, president of the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies toured North
Korea and, in a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, stressed
the dire situation facing North Korean children, "Unless
the country receives help soon, it is in danger of losing its
young population," she said.
At the same time, US Congressman Tony Hall, widely regarded
as a famine expert, spent five days touring Pyongyang, Sariwon,
Chongjin, Sinuiju, Hamhung and other cities across the northern
part of the Korean peninsula. Representative Hall reported that
when he visited a food distribution center, which also had some
factory facilities, he didn't find any real food, but only "substitute
foods". "What they do is grind these weeds and corn
stalks into powder and make noodles out of it," he said,
adding that grass and corn stalks are indigestible. Hall showed
photos he took in North Korea in which a 10-year old boy was
12 inches shorter than what he should be. Villagers in rural
areas who are desperate for food have also been reported to
boil tree bark and make a bitter-tasting soup out of it.
A local aid agency conducted a survey, the most thorough
of its kind, of over 1000 "food refugees" who risked
their lives to cross the China/North Korea border in search
of food for their families. The interviews revealed a consistent
and tragic picture of desperate conditions in which a typical
North Korean family loses from 20-30% of its members to famine-related
conditions.
What
we've accomplished so far: back to top of page
Although we're a small grassroots
organization, to date, the Ton-a-Month Club has supplied over
53 tons of food and most recently warm winter clothing
to vulnerable groups of North Koreans, both within the DPRK
and those who have fled to China.
We've also participated in fund-raising
efforts (specifically, two goodwill marches) with other expatriates
here in Korea which resulted in over $30,000 for famine relief
was raised. On Nov. 18th, 1999 we held a charity concert entitled,
"Famine for Love" in the Munhwa Ilbo Concert Hall
featuring the internationally acclaimed classical pianist Mr.
Sam Rotman and Korean soprano Chang Sun Kyung. We've also introduced
other concerned individuals to aid agencies and they have assisted
with at least 17 more tons of food assistance.
With others' help, we want to do
much more. Our activities have been covered on numerous occasions
since 1996 by nation-wide daily newspapers Korea
Herald, Korea Times, Chosun
Ilbo, Daehan Ilbo, and was given a front-page article in the
Pacific Stars and Stripes newspaper covering the entire Pacific
region (reprints of articles are available upon request.)
Our ongoing commitments are to:
1) Obtain the most economical and nutritious
foodstuffs that can be best digested by those who are suffering
famine conditions. At present these would include corn powder
and wheat powder that can easily be made into noodles and
eaten with soup. We can currently purchase 1000kg. (1 ton)
for about US$150-175. We prefer to purchase grains in China
where costs and transport expenses are greatly minimized.
2) Maintain the highest possible degree of person-to-person
delivery of food aid instead of government-to-government
transfers of food aid. Each month it is possible to review
where our food aid has gone, the amount, etc.
Each
man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not
reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2nd
Corinthians 9:7 (NIV)
How can you help? back to top of page
To make an immediate difference:
donations of any size and in any currency are most welcome.
The Ton a Month Club is continually surveying wholesale costs
on world markets for the most economical price for either whole
or powdered corn or wheat. At present, we are able to obtain
a ton of corn for about $170 per ton in northern China. In addition,
any health care supplies are gratefully accepted. Donations
can be sent in several different ways:
1) By sending international
postal money orders (available at post offices worldwide)
to the following postal address-
T.A. Peters K.P.O.
Box 677 Republic of Korea
2) Through a direct bank
transfer to:
Citibank-NA, Seoul Account Number:
01-71-007359 Account
Name: Timothy Alan Peters International ABA # or Routing
#: 10995101
In addition, if you prefer
to directly donate food or other useful items to the needy,
please communicate and we'll do our best to coordinate such
shipments for you.
We also need volunteers who are
willing to donate their time in helping us "get out the
word" to various sectors of the population about the desperate
needs of vulnerable groups of North Koreans. Those with computer
and Internet skills would also be a tremendous help in pursuing
the dissemination aspect of our work.
THANKS SO
MUCH for helping us make a difference in this desperate humanitarian
situation!!
Please contact us if you have any questions:
E-mail: hlpkorea@att.co.kr
Daytime Phone: 016-327-0115
Evening Phone (after 9:00PM):
82-2-2201-6731 (includes country code)
Post Office Address:
T.A. Peters
K.P.O. Box 677
Seoul 110-110
Republic of Korea
Relief Updates:
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On Nov. 18th, a charity concert entitled "Famine for Love"
was held in the Munhwa Ilbo concert hall in Sodaemun featuring internationally
recognized classical pianist, Sam Rotman, and well-known Korean
soprano and professor of voice, Chang Sun Kyung. The concert was
sponsored by Ton-a-Month Club and proceeds were given to feed and
provide winter clothes for North Korean children who have fled North
Korea into the adjoining provinces of China.
Ton-a-Month founder Tim Peters and his wife made their first
personal delivery of 5 tons of wheat flour to a noodle factory the
North Korean town of Rajin in late June, 1999.
In the past months, the correspondent from the major US network
CBS radio stationed in Korea and a member of the Ton-a-Month Club
for over a year, handed us $500 for famine relief. To our surprise,
he explained that his participation in Ton a Month Club assisted
him in obtaining a key position at UNICEF in the Congo for which
he'll be leaving this week.
Elementary schoolchildren and their teacher from a US military
base in Kyushu, Japan collected and sent to the Ton-a-Month Club
a check amounting to $600 to help relieve hunger among children
in North Korea after seeing a front-page article about our work
in the Sunday edition of Pacific Stars and Stripes newspaper.
A Korean tailor and devoted Christian friend of Ton-a-Month Club,
recently gave us an envelope containing about $88 for famine relief
when we dropped by to see him even though the Korean economy is
undergoing severe hardships since the IMF recovery program began
just one year ago.
A Michigan community newspaper entitled Mature Michiganians that
reaches people in the age range of over-50 in the state capital
of Lansing and mid-Michigan USA area carried a full description
of our Ton-a-Month program under the title "Missionary to North
Korea asks for help from locals".
A major South Korean TV broadcasting station, MBC, interviewed
Tim about ways Korea can improve its volunteer programs and Ton-a-Month
Club was mentioned as one of our projects.
Korea Herald printed a fullpage article in their Friday, March
12th edition about the Ton-a-Month Club and a recent fact-finding
mission taken by Tim and another volunteer to the North Korean/China
border. (This article is available in the archives of the Korea
Herald Internet Website--http://www.koreaherald.co.kr)
Approximately 6 tons’ worth of donations were given in response
to this article.
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