How to Develop our Village and Country April 2006

 ‘Saemaul’ is a combined word of ‘Sae’ and ‘Maul’.  ‘Sae’ in Korean means ‘new’ or ‘refreshed’ and  ‘Maul’ means a village which is the basic unit of community.

The three campaigns of Saemaul Undong consist of 3 components.  The mental campaign include better ties with neighbors, inheriting and advancing traditional ethics propped up by filial piety and strengthening community awareness.  The behavioral campaign emphasized on public order on the streets, positive interactions, public manners, and prohibiting drunken misconduct.  The environmental campaign stressed cleanliness of the area around an individual’s home or business, controlling the street environment and developing greener cities and streams.

The 3 main values for Saemaul Undong  Diligence leads to sincerity. As the phrase, “The early bird catches the worm.” Shows diligence leads to sincerity, a value the doesn’t allow for falseness, hypocrisy and vanity.  Self-help defines one’s fate based on one’s effort. The proverb, “Heaven helps those who help themselves.” Shows that one is the master of one’s fate. One has to be totally independent and must not ask for help from the outside.  Cooperation is based on a pursuit for community growth “Two heads are better than one.” As this proverb shows, community growth should be a team effort.

Five Steps of Saemaul Undong Movement Basic Arrangeme nt Operation of Projects Main Stage Final Stage Feedb ack

1) Basic arrangements (1) Three Arrangements for the start (2) Forming a Core Group 1-Leaders (3) Forming a Core Group 2-Cooperative working (4) Forming a Core Group 3-Applying existing organization (5) Forming a Core Group 4-Sectional organizations (6) Raising seed money 1-through sample cooperative project (7) Raising seed money 2-by cooperative work

2) Operation of Projects (1) Principles and standards for selecting a project (2) Planning a project (3) Persuading villagers 1-Set a model to the villagers. (4) Persuading villagers 2- ‘You can do it.’ Present results. (5) Collecting consensus 1- small group meeting (6) Collecting consensus 2-General meeting of villagers (7) Let everybody plays a part (8) Prepare and manage public property. (9) Preparing center (10) Encouraging each other (11) We are one living creature. Let blood circulate. (12) Getting assistance from outside

3) Main Stage of Project (1) Project 1 for living environment improvement- Eliminate inconveniences of the houses. (2) Project 2 for living environment improvement- Eliminate inconveniences of the village. (3) Project 3 for living environment improvement- Create an environment needed for income increase. (4) Project 1 for income increase – Remove the obstacles. (5) Project 2 for income increase – Launch cooperative projects. (6) Project 3 for income increase – Commercialize things around you. (7) Project 4 for income increase – Introduce Something new. (8) Project 5 for income increase – Modify distributive construction. (9) Project 6 for income increase – Operating factory (10) Consolidating community 1 – Revise good morals and manners and extirpate evil practices. (11) Consolidating community 2 – Providing culture center and facilities. (12) Consolidating community 3 – Residents’ credit union movement

4) Final Stage of Project (1) Share the results and celebrate the success. (2) Share the long-term prospect (3) Stabilization of Joint Fund (4) Active sectional organizations (5) Regularizing meetings for technology research (6) Establishing Village Hall (7) Publishing Local Newspaper (8) Establishing partnership with other regions and government offices. (9) Setting up sisterhood relationship with foreign countries

5) Feedback at National Level – Korea The government is a crucial partner. It was the government that contributed the most in Korea’s Saemaul Movement. But different countries have different Situations. Therefore, Korea’s case presented here should be Taken as one of many examples.

The Korean government supported the movement in terms of: 1. creation of a favorable environment 2. provision of supplies and funds 3. provision of manpower, such as government officials 4. provision of technology, information and education 5. legal and institutional support

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