Since August 2001, the Village of Reconciliation in Asan, Korea, has grown into a thriving community that brings stability, comfort and permanence to its families.

JCWP 2001 in Asan, Korea, One Year Later
By Mikel Flamm

In the year since the 2001 Jimmy Carter Work Project in the Republic of Korea, the project's main site in Asan--known as the Village of Reconciliation--has transformed into a community with a permanent, settled feeling.

Potted plants, children's toys and flower gardens line the rows of homes that Habitat for Humanity Korea built during the annual event. More than 10,000 volunteers from 30 countries built 136 units at six sites that week.

Children romp in the playground, sharing ice cream and candy as they enjoy the closeness of community, flanked by nearby woods and rice fields. Families have transitioned to a new life, leaving behind the stark uncertainty and insecurity they endured before the JCWP.

For Ki Sik Lee, the chance to own his own home has been a blessing. As a single father raising his 9-year-old daughter, Eunji, he worried for her safety in the former neighborhood they called home.

"We had so little there," he says. "It was constantly cold in the winter and had no indoor toilet or bathroom. I was always concerned about Eunji using the public wash areas by herself, so she used a small plastic bowl to wash in."

Today, the Lee family has complete indoor plumbing, but the benefits of their new home hardly end there. Decent housing represents a positive reality that once appeared to the Lees only as a dream. "This home for us has been a dream come true," he says. "Everything is perfect. The area has clean air, and we are healthier here. It was always a problem before with catching colds because we were always cold at night in the winter."

	Soon Sun Moon is happy to plant and tend her garden, and her husband, Jong Rok Lee, enjoys it as well. "The flowers...give me the pleasure of being in peace here," he says.

The new house keeps those winter nights at bay and costs substantially less to heat than their former home. During the day, he says, the sunshine warms the room and fills the home with a mood of contentment.

Many of the Lees' neighbors in the Village of Reconciliation faced similar hardships before their Habitat involvement. For instance, Jong Hee Lee, her husband, Byungkyu Choi, and their three children previously lived in a storage room half the size of their home now.

The one-room dwelling was old and run down. Fungus lined the walls, and an inadequate heating system struggled unsuccessfully to warm the family sufficiently.

"It was very gloomy and dark inside," she says. "When we moved into this house, our oldest daughter, said, 'What a bright house we now have. I hope we can stay here for a long time.'

"To me this house represents something we did not have before," Lee says. "We used to move around to different places that were never our own. We felt isolated, especially with our son Myung Ho having a mental disability. I always used to keep him inside for fear of his getting injured. Now the people here know him and understand his situation. I feel secure for my family."

Something else Jong Hee and Byungkyu did not have before was an official wedding ceremony--but that changed about a year after moving into their house. They, along with three other families from the community, gathered at the new Methodist church in the neighborhood to formalize their marriage bonds with one another.

Each couple had been married years ago but could not afford a formal ceremony at that time. Since then, they had been dreaming not only of having a decent house of their own, but also of having a wedding. The four couples at last enjoyed their long-awaited weddings, officiated by the same minister at the same time and the same place.

"We finally feel complete here," says Lee. "Our life is whole now here for us all."

Having spent his adult life moving from one substandard condition to another, Jong Rok Lee, 58, has found permanence as well. Though disabled, he kept busy during the project by painting signs that still hang outside of each house in the community and repairing faulty power cords.

In thinking of where his family used to live, he laughs and says, "Where we are now is like heaven and sky. Where we were before was like hell and earth."

On the main road leading into the community, the presence of the new church has enhanced the community since its dedication in April. According to Pastor Sung-Shik Park, it has helped unite the community, and through that unity has come a greater understanding of one another.

By all accounts, growth for HFH Korea, as well as the Village of Reconciliation, has taken off in the past year. Each of the six JCWP sites has added new houses; some 50 Koreans, including two homeowners, headed to the JCWP in South Africa in June; and a 42-house blitz build took place in August.

Beyond local growth, Dr. Kun Mo Chung, chairman of HFH Korea, now sees the organization developing as a service leader in the Asia/Pacific area. "Habitat for Humanity Korea is in the position to lead the volunteer work for other Asian countries in the Asia/Pacific area," says Chung. "So we're trying to enhance the Global Village program with the support of young volunteers and the tithe."

In all, the JCWP brought recognition and public awareness to Habitat's work throughout Korea. "It has been a fantastic year for us," says Sung-Lak Choi, national director. "When Habitat took root in Korea in 1992, few people knew of our work. ... We are now able to stand on our own and are very optimistic."

--Mikel Flamm is a photojournalist for Habitat for Humanity International's Asia/Pacific Area Office.