The Words of the Mylar Family
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The Words of the Mylar Family |
Village
of Po, Upper Volta. Kem Mylar meets local children.
IRFF acts as a catalyst which helps the American people fulfill their Christian providential mandate to serve the world by sharing their bountiful resources and their young people.
Throughout history the existence of poverty, malnutrition, hunger, and disease have been unsolvable to man. Simple solutions of economic and material aid have been sufficient in only providing short term successes against the march of hunger and disease across many underdeveloped countries.
The International Relief Friendship Foundation, Inc., IRFF, is a project sponsored by the Unification Church to bring a fundamental change into the approach of solving worldwide hunger, poverty, and disease.
To gain a deeper understanding of the purpose and activities of IRFF, we interviewed the Executive Director of IRFF, Mr. Kem Mylar.
IRFF was founded by people inspired by the ideals of Rev. Sun Myung Moon who felt that the problem of poverty was no longer insurmountable given modem technology and the desire for world peace.
Our goals are two-fold. First, to provide immediate emergency assistance to persons who are in serious need or who have experienced a catastrophe, either natural or by war who need a limited amount of aid until they can once again be self-reliant. Secondly, to act as a catalyst with long term developmental projects. These projects attack the causes of poverty, malnutrition, and disease. Through the establishment of educational centers, vocational technical training and agricultural management programs, many countries gain the initiative toward positive change.
Furthermore, medical teams provide basic care in Third World countries as well as teach hygiene.
Right now we focus primarily on four key nations. Three other countries are under preliminary consideration. But our representatives are doing some kind of work in about 40 nations altogether.
In Thailand, for example, which is the country I most recently visited, there is an irrigation project, the initial effort for which came from the IRFF in Japan. First came a request from the government of Thailand. This was at the time when the Laotians were fleeing their nation's communist regime to northeast Thailand, and were putting an added burden and strain on the agricultural economy in that area. The residents were not able to change from a one crop per year system, and they needed water. So the Thais appealed to the Japanese government to send them a series of large water pumps, at the cost of about $50,000.00 each, to supply water from the Mekong River to the farms.
While this was under consideration, IRFF of Japan decided to take the first step: to work in conjunction with the Thailand government, and donate one of these water pumps, as a pioneer project. The pump was installed, and is still operating after a few years of use. It serves 267 farms and benefited thousands of people.
When the success of this model activity became apparent, as many as 150 pumps were donated by the government of Japan to Thailand, which changed the whole course of history for this region and its people; because of one innovative idea incorporating technology and irrigation.
Another project in Thailand is our full-time medical team that operates at the Sikiu Vietnamese refugee camp. This camp is for boat people who escaped from the communist regime in Vietnam. However, the Thai government is concerned that there might be communist agents among them and keeps them separate from the general population. But the IRFF medical team, with its determination to provide apolitical medical service, offers a unique opportunity and the government favors it.
The medical team consists of 25 to 30 members, eight of which are Unification Church members, including a doctor, a pharmacist, and a laboratory technician. There are five to eight Vietnamese doctors, and the rest are Vietnamese nurses. It is a large service. They treat 400 people a day at this facility. All their medicines are sups plied by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and we have drawn many words of praise and letters of commendation from the United Nations for our work at the Vietnamese camp.
In addition to serving the medical needs of the Vietnamese boat people, this particular team also does mobile medical work. Several days a month, the whole staff sets off in vans, taking as much of their equipment as they can into rural Thai villages, helping the poor farmers, bringing them desperately needed dental and medical care. This naturally provides a service that is greatly appreciated by the people and the government.
Besides the tremendous workload in the refugee camp, the medical team works to help the people along the borders of Thailand and Cambodia. IRFF has made several substantial contributions including the distribution of clothing and material goods for Cambodian refugees suffering from attacks of the Vietnamese communists. Also aided were self-defense Thai villages along the border which are frequently caught in artillery barrages.
In Bangkok itself, we have a project called the Makkasan Slum Education Project. The project is staffed by about 20 to 30 members. What IRFF in Bangkok did was to look at the community and say, "What is a serious need here for which we could provide a service?" One of the major problems in the slums is that children grow up among crime and prostitution and drugs. The Makkasan slum is among the largest in the city. IRFF decided to become involved with the responsibility for the basic education needs of the elementary school children. So representatives of IRFF went to a principal of an elementary school located in the heart of the slums, and said, "How can we help?"
From this initial meeting came a project which is of great inspiration to the Thai people and government. It has been a great resource to this particular school. IRFF members work in coordinating sports programs, teaching typing, English and hygiene, offering medical and dental service, and holding cultural activities such as dancing. Basically, IRFF takes care of the children from day to night, even giving them haircuts and teaching them how to brush their teeth.
Our members go into the community and work with the children's families, helping to strengthen the family unit and let them understand their integral role of working together in order to shape a better community.
This project involves many church members and is strictly a voluntary effort. It's supported almost entirely by the members themselves in Thailand.
Upper
Volta. Village of Po getting medical supplies.
In Peru, in South America, there is the Prince of Peace School, a Unification Church project. It was originally sponsored in part by IRFF funds, which helped to get this project off the ground. But full credit belongs to the Unification Church missionaries who initiated this project and were also representatives of IRFF. They had a long-range vision of establishing a school that would provide an alternative to what a lot of people were experiencing in the capital city.
What they were experiencing is that the Soviet Union knows that the key to changing the socio-economic system of this world lies in controlling education of children in grade school, and eventually up to college, literally brainwashing them.
So what exists in Lima today in one sense is that there are schools or institutions that exist under the name of cultural institutions but are thinly- veiled disguises for educational institutions sponsored directly or indirectly by the Soviet Union. So the form of teaching that results, according to our representative there, has a very revolutionary viewpoint taught in the most subtle fashion. It is materialist ideology aimed at instilling atheism in the minds of children.
Many people don't want to take their children to these institutions, and they have difficulty finding an alternative. The Prince of Peace School fills the need for an alternative, and fills it well.
The school initially enrolled 40 students. But the enrollment quickly jumped to the maximum capacity of the school, which is 140, and applications now total 300 per month.
They've been looking for a way to expand and increase the number of grade levels offered. It is a self- sustaining school that pays for itself, with a very qualified and capable staff, and it is a model of the kind of school that needs to be expanded throughout South America.
Another project cosponsored by the IRFF in South America is the Joshua House Orphanage. IRFF, in conjunction with the Unification Church of Guyana, work together for the continuation of this children's home. This orphanage at one time housed nearly 70 children, though right now it has about 30. Since its inception, Joshua House has given shelter, food and clothing to over 700 children, as well as helped them get a better start in life.
It also was started by Unification Church members who had a vision to really improve their country. They saw that need through their own self- sacrificial service. With some funding from IRFF and USAID they were able to reach their initial objectives. Future plans are to develop a school and agricultural project based on proceeds received from a thrift store system.
In Africa, a key relief work is the project in Zaire called Ecoprof. It 1 is an agricultural and technical school which is basically a self- help program perpetuating itself through our efforts of Zaireans who feel responsible for their country and continent.
People on medical teams will tell you that in Africa one of the major causes of disease is malnutrition. Since this is so, Ecoprof seeks to educate young Zaireans to help their people through innovative agriculture resource management and fish farming.
It offers a 30-hour-a-week course load, and is receiving accreditation from the Zairean government. It's run by Africans, for Africans. It's built upon their enthusiasm, their sweat, their tears, and their blood to show a better way, not just for the Third World, but ultimately for everyone who shares life on this small planet. It is designed to show how people who work together in cooperation and make a certain amount of sacrifice can really build a better world.
Besides the agricultural end, there is emphasis on technical training such as business and typing classes. There are plans for expansion on every level including machine shop vocational training and automotive mechanics. At this time IRFF is working in Washington, D.C. to get large matching grant U.S. funding, if possible, for this noble project. Solicitation plans for 1983-84 call for acquisition of farm tools and equipment that can be utilized in the future. Most development grants are not available to churches, but are available to relief organizations such as IRFF
Poverty, which is a major problem in the world today, can exist only on the foundation of ignorance. IRFF has a responsibility, then, to attack widespread ignorance through programs of education.
The IRFF in Germany plans to send machinery such as high speed precision lathes to different countries for the purpose of building vocational technical schools where young people can receive practical training for their professions. These schools will be beneficial in the building of recipient countries and in teaching the students how to become prosperous citizens.
But IRFF is probably better recognized for its emergency assistance programs -- alleviating crisis situations with shipments of medical supplies, foodstuffs, and clothing, of which the most outstanding was the 55-ton shipment last year of these materials to flood victims in Bolivia.
This was a joint venture carried out with CAUSA International, who funded the activity. Other shipments included medical supplies distributed to Equatorial Guinea and Upper Volta. In Equatorial Guinea, the people had suffered 11 years of Marxist dictatorial rule, and the Soviet Union raped that country ruthlessly, stealing and squander in its natural resources and leaving the people with close to nothing. IRFF was one of the first organizations in that country to take some responsibility through an initial shipment of medicines, with a commercial value of $20,000 to $30,000. The retail value in Africa would be two to three times that amount.
In a subsequent meeting with the nation's new president, he expressed his gratitude in these terms. He said, "My country today is like a sick man. After you help a sick man, when he's well, he doesn't forget." So his gratitude and the gratitude of his country for IRFF and for Rev. Moon is lasting.
Sometimes all that is needed to help people who are victims of a catastrophes is to give them just enough aid to get them back on their feet. Whoever does this is fulfilling one of the greatest functions of all, that of the Good Samaritan. IRFF is there for that internal purpose, as well as for the external development of the country.
One aspect of IRFF work has stood out, and I guess it was exemplified in the Ecoprof project. In the first year, students are given a class in moral and ethical values in society. Many students have been so inspired by this that they have asked where the original thoughts came from. They then are recommended to go to the center and hear some lectures. At least 200 high-caliber members have come to the Unification Church from the Ecoprof project.
One distinct aspect of IRFF work that has been beneficial for the Unification Church is that members have joined indirectly from social service projects. Our activities touch the idealism in people and they are inspired to deepen their insight of life. From Southeast Asia to Africa, many high caliber members have come indirectly to the Unification Church through association with its members involved in the projects.
Many Americans wonder, well, what is the Unification Church, with all its money and members, doing? IRFF is a powerful answer to that question.
Based upon the sacrifice -- literally the sweat, tears, and blood -- of members who are participating in IRFF activities the groundwork to change the course of history in some nations is being laid. An impact is soon to be made upon hundreds of thousands of people.
In the long-range view, as IRFF sweeps into Third World nations with answers to the major problems confronting people, the negative image of the Unification Church at home and abroad will eventually be overcome, and the good name of the founder will be vindicated. Good works are unaccusable; they're indisputable. There is no way to attack the hard work or the sincerity of the motivation of the people who are involved in these noble projects. Unification Church funds and members have been and remain necessary for the continued success of these humanitarian activities that serve everyone.
For example, in building a fish farm as part of the Ecoprof project you don't have immediately available bulldozers, not even a lot of basic, necessary tools. That means that someone has to get into the dirt, the mud and work to set the example.
Whether an IRFF representative is a Unification Church member or not, emergency aid has to be given, students instructed, medical services rendered and so forth. Someone has got to shed sweat.
The success of our immediate and long range programs show what the constitution of the people involved are all about. This is where the members of the Unification Church are really exemplary in their willingness to sacrifice themselves for a greater purpose