There are many people who say that they want to be with me on a visit to the Refugee camp, as it is well known that they are working as goodwill ambassadors for the UN Refugee Organization. I appreciate the heart, but I would like to say through this opportunity that it is difficult in many ways in reality.
First of all, there are many people who think that I am going to give out relief supplies to visit Refugee camp, but in fact I am not going there to deliver the goods. It is my primary role to see the reality there and to let more people know the situation.
Thankfully, the campers always welcome me, even though they know I came empty-handed. There is nothing that can be physically helped right away, but it is a great power for them to know that there are people who sympathize with their pain and want to be together in the outside world through me.
Visiting Refugee camps also follows a lot of practical issues - for one thing, most of the Refugee camps are very dangerous because they are near conflict zones. It is often a region specially managed by the Korean Foreign Ministry. It may not welcome entry from the country. I, too, could only go where there was some security, with the help of the UN Refugee Organization.
There are security issues. In my case, I pay for the airfare and the expenses I pay. The UN Refugee Organization budget is thought to be spent on Refugee support for even a penny more. I can not help but look back at whether my movement is a burden on the Refugees, the Refugee camp, and the UN Refugee organization.
For those who ask for specific ways to help the Refugees for these reasons, I recommend other ways instead of visiting the camp. Some people want to send in kind, especially clothes that are not worn, saying that it will help the refugees.
Priority of support items is in the order of children's necessities, women's necessities, and education-related items, so clothes are not the items that are desperately needed in the local area. Moreover, if you send goods from our country, the shipping cost is small. Considering the money to be spent on shipping, it is a wiser choice to use the money to buy the goods you need locally.
The UN Refugee Organization basically gives cash support first for Refugee. It is intended to help the economy of the region and allow local residents to look at the Refugee acceptance a little more favorably by purchasing and using goods around the camps possible.
So if you want to help the Refugees materially, it's good to have Sponsorship in many ways. Sponsorship, which has come from all over the world, gathers representatives from each country at Geneva headquarters to distribute them appropriately considering the situation of each country.
There is also a story I want to share with Sponsorship. Many people do not know, but the fact that the Republic of Korea is the second largest country in the world to produce the UN Refugee Organization private Sponsorship (Spain 1st). While corporate Sponsorship is relatively lacking and government donations are limited, we are ahead in terms of individual sponsorship. There are so many people around us who help the neighbors of the far land without knowing it.
If you’re talking about this, you might ask if the only way to help Refugee is by sponsorship, but it’s not. The attitude of not turning away from the problem of refugee, expanding my interest in my neighbors and society to the international community will be an important step toward solving the problem of refugee. When our understanding and interest gather, the voice of international solidarity to resolve the situation will also grow, which will surely have a positive impact on the solution of the situation.
In this process, we will know how strongly each other is connected, and how important solidarity and understanding are. The Refugees I met locally were all very grateful that people in the distance had not forgotten them. The small attention we have will be a great force for them to hold on to another day.
# In - It # Init # Jung Woo-sung # In the border, people
Jung Woo-sung actor. Goodwill Ambassador to the UN Refugee Organization. If you can see what I saw.