Tuesday, 26th January 2016

Robert Grund from Berlin is campaigning for the deaf children in North Korea. He made his first trip to the isolated country after he became a barely legal adult. Against original discouragements, he has been pursuing his goal there ever since.

Written by Dirk Godder
Berlin/Pyongyang (dpa) • "Here, everything is self-made," writes Robert Grund on a blackboard. The Berliner proudly points to this wooden frame of the entrance leading to a building in the middle of Pyongyang before guiding seven members of the Bundestag through the rooms. Inside, the members of the German-Korean parliamentary group are welcomed by a crowd of dancing children. Accompanied by piano music, they sing about the "Great Marshal Kim Jong Un", the country's ruler. The group also includes children who, like Robert Grund, are deaf. The presentation is intended to give the deputies who are traveling in North Korea an impression of what is currently taking place here: the first-ever kindergarten for deaf children in North Korea.

Since his first trip to the East Asian country eleven years ago, Grund has already been able to achieve a lot. Among other things, he helped establish a deaf association and allow North Koreans to travel abroad to deaf congresses. For the 30-year-old, the kindergarten is now part of a larger goal: Above all, he wishes the deaf to be able to decide for themselves about the funding projects intended for them. The working motto of his association is: "Nothing about us without us".

However, so that the kindergarten does not get trapped in the project phase, a lot still needs to be done with the approval of the authorities. For example, school equipment for the kindergarten, but above all, enough nurses must be recruited along with fluency in sign language. Future kindergartens in four other provinces are already planned.

"Robert has ensured that the deaf can take their fate into their own hands," says Renée Rentke from the Asia department of the aid organization Misereor. Robert Grund had already achieved a lot by being so persistent. The work of non-governmental organizations and foundations in Germany and other countries is often complicated.

"They make it complicated and bureaucratic," says Grund. But he said that if kindergartens were founded without signs language lessons, then he would fly home. But, that has been succeeded. His work is respected. With a population of about 24 million, he estimates the number of deaf people at 240,000 to 480,000. There are only eight schools for the deaf in the whole country.

Being a German teenager who watched a TV documentary about North Korea, he could not believe what he learned: There are allegedly no deaf people in the country. He wanted to go and see for himself. When he became old enough, he applied for his first visa for North Korea and then traveled to the country frequently. Partnering with a German businesswoman, he founded the association "Together - Education Centre for Deaf, Blind and Non-Disabled Children Hamhung" in 2008. He has lived in Pyongyang since 2013, but occasionally travels to Germany in order to find sponsors for his projects. "Without Misereor, the kindergarten would not exist," he says.

If possible, the kindergarten should become a part of an educational centre for deaf, blind and non-disabled children. Originally, the center was supposed to be in a new building, but the state had abandoned the project. Finally, the association was then offered to use a building in need of renovation. The upper five floors were still in shell condition, at the top of the roof there is a temporary workshop where 18 deaf young people make jewelry made of wood.

A complete wood workshop is planned. Actually, the building should have been completed a long time ago. "We don't have any money, but it's growing," says an employee of the Korean Economic Cultural Centre for the Deaf and Blind (KECCDB).

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