Many people are astonished when we tell them that we are engaging in North Korea: this country is so far away from Germany! Most people have very sad or angry thoughts and associations when they hear or read the words North Korea: This country is called the most isolated country in the world. It is not a democratic country and Germany does not agree with the politics in North Korea. There are so many countries on this planet and endless amounts of work have to be done everywhere, also here in Germany. Why do we engage in North Korea, despite of all this?
Here you can read how our connection to North Korea came into being. And once we are here, we want to stick to this decision and focus on our work with deaf and blind children.
Deaf and blind children do not make politics. They are living in a situation that urgently needs improvement. Also the situation of the deaf and blind adults needs to be improved. This is also the ambition of North Korea and therefore they have invited us to support them. We sensed a positive atmosphere in the country to improve the situation for disabled persons and a strong will to change things for the better.
Most members of our Disabled Persons' Organisation are deaf or blind. We know exactly that as disabled we have to fight for our rights and that we can make use of the UN CRPD. We have already achieved a lot to improve our lives. This encourages us to continue!
And we want to achieve the same TOGETHER with the Deaf and Blind in North Korea. In this process, they will be empowered and enabled to engage themselves for the improvement of their living conditions. If we succeed on this way, they themselves will achieve positive change for the Deaf and Blind in their country, independent of the big politics. We think this is a good goal.
The North Korean side requests exchange with us and TOGETHER we can learn a lot. This is exciting, it is both hard work and fun, and we all benefit from this cooperation.
What we do in North Korea is NAUWU in the best sense.
