'Friends of Korea' brings Americans closer to Korea

Nancy Kelly, left, president of the Friends of Korea, with Unhui Krieger, a supporter of the group. / Courtesy of Nancy Kelly

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Nancy Kelly, president of the Washington-based group Friends of Korea, considers Korea a second home and strives to help the people of the two countries feel closer to each other.

Kelly and the other board members realized that most Americans have no deep understanding of Korea, which is an obstacle to relations between the two countries.

The recently released DVD, "The Korean Transformation," is the result of the group's efforts to live up to their commitment to bridge the two countries. The 15-minute DVD features images and texts of Korea's transformation from 1966, when the first group of Peace Corps volunteers arrived in the country, to 1981, when the last group left.

The DVD, released by the group, features the images of old and new Korea.

Kelly said the DVD has been successful, receiving very positive feedback from Americans who have watched it.

"We sent out 400 DVDs to Americans, including students viewing the DVD in their classrooms, and their responses have been good," she told The Korea Times. "I know one person who is going to send a copy to every single sister city of Korea in the United States."

Since the distribution of the video began in July, more than 3,000 organizations and people were contacted about their potential interest in receiving the DVD.

An American who watched the video said it would be great for social studies classes in middle and high schools, and he personally will be able to use it in promoting a 50th anniversary trip to Korea of students and parents from the Wilkinson School in Half Moon Bay, California.

David Lassiter, a board member of the Friends of Korea, initiated "The Korean Transformation" DVD project.

Another American who teaches English at Cal State Sacramento said he would use the video in his classes.

David Lassiter, a board member of the Friends of Korea, came up with the idea of creating a visually effective tool to increase Americans' awareness of Korea by using the photos taken by group members during their stays in Korea. Lassiter was in the first group of Peace Corps volunteers that went to Korea. It took him a year to complete the DVD project.

"The project was a labor of love and one that sprang from my heart. I have such fond memories of my experiences in Korea, even to this day," Lassiter said. He said Koreans have left a lasting impression on him and been a guide for his own conduct.

"What we see is mainly a tool used by former Peace Corps volunteers or other members of Friends of Korea; they take this DVD to high school classes and use it to teach students about Korea," Kelly said. "This DVD gives you a little bit of the background of Korea, its struggles and where it came from. The Korea you know today is not the Korea that many of us knew 30 or 40 years ago. It was really in that spirit that David created this."

The Friends of Korea gave a $2,000 grant in 2014 to the Los Angeles-based Korean American Family Services organization as part of the group's effort to help vulnerable Korean-Americans in the United States.
/ Courtesy of Friends of Korea

Kelly's ties to Korea began in 1965, when she first came to Korea with her father, who was a staffer of the USAID, a U.S. government agency created to fight global poverty. She went to Seoul American Elementary School in Yongsan.

She spent her childhood in many countries, including Korea, because her father's job often required him to move. Wherever her father was posted, he invited Peace Corps volunteers to dinner at his house with his family. These meetings with many wonderful aid workers influenced her future career.

After obtaining a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia, she volunteered for the Peace Corps in Korea, which was her favorite country. When she applied to become a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea, there was no opening at the time; she waited for months before she was finally assigned as a health worker in a midwife facility in the southeastern coastal city of Masan in 1979. While there, she helped a midwife.

"I helped her in deliveries," she said. "It was a wonderful experience."

When the Peace Corps mission in Korea ended in 1981, she returned to the U.S. and obtained a PhD in Asian history and a master's in public health. She said this is the Peace Corps legacy in her life.

Kelly said she was excited about the creation of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), a Korean version of the Peace Corps, in 1991, because it enables Korea to give back to the international community in the same way that the Peace Corps gave to Korea.

In the late 1980s or the early 1990s, the Korean government invited Kelly, among other experts, to a meeting with officials in Seoul. At that time, the government was seeking to create its own volunteer corps, similar to the Peace Corps, and wanted to hear about U.S. experiences. Kelly said she presented the goals and missions of the Peace Corps during the meeting.

Expansion

Just like Kelly, some former Peace Corps members strove to find ways to maintain their ties to Korea after they returned to the United States. Soon they felt the need to create a group to share their time and experiences in Korea with each other. They established Friends of Korea in the early 1990s.

As time went on, the group's members realized that if they wanted the organization to continue, they needed to be more inclusive. The former Peace Corps volunteers in Korea were aging, so they decided to open the group's membership to other people who have experiences in or with Korea.

Now, the group has some 2,500 members, about half of whom are former Peace Corps volunteers, while the rest are those who have experienced Korea in many different ways. Some of the new members, for example, are former Fulbright scholars who had been in Korea for the scholarship program, English teachers who taught in Korea and members of the army who were stationed in the country.

"We need to broaden the scope of this organization," Kelly said. "Thus, even K-Pop lovers who want to know more about the country are also welcome to join us."

The number of people joining Friends of Korea is expected to grow, especially because many Koreans are coming to America and are interested in improving the understanding between Koreans and Americans through the group.

With this more open membership, Friends of Korea members are able to share more ideas for strengthening their role in building bridges between Korea and the United States in a more orderly way.

Friends of Korea created the "Giving Back" project, an effort to provide grants to Korean-American social service efforts.

In 2014, it gave $2,000 to the Los Angeles-based Korean American Family Services organization. The board members of Friends of Korea will be meeting in October in Boston to discuss another grant program for Korean-Americans.

The group is developing an even more ambitious project related to so-called "soft diplomacy."

As part of this project, the board members are working with Korean partners to host an exhibition in the fall of next year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Peace Corps in Korea.

The board members are also working closely with the National Museum of Contemporary Korean History in organizing an exhibit about the contributions of American aid workers in Korea.

They are also preparing for a symposium to highlight the role of aid workers and how they can have a positive impact on bilateral relations.

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