Community Corner

San Leandro Man Sends Wheelchairs To North Korea

Hee Dal Park, a 67-year-old Seoul native, has been collecting and sending wheelchairs to the North since 2007

 

The news is full of tensions between North Korea and the United States. But one San Leandro man is on a mission to help the North's most vulnerable residents.

Hee Dal Park, a 67-year-old native of Seoul, South Korea, has spent the past five years collecting donated wheelchairs and shipping them to North Korea. 

Find out what's happening in San Leandrowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Regardless of nationality, ethnic background, religion or ideology, I want to offer my help as best I can,” Park says in a profile published by New America Media.

The article says Park calls his non-profit Jageun Nanum, the Korean equivalent of “every little bit counts.”

To date Jageun Nanum has shipped more than 1400 wheelchairs to several Asian countries, including North Korea. Since 2007 Park has visited the North four times. 

Find out what's happening in San Leandrowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Park told New America Media that he plans to return to the North in May to meet with officials from the agency that distributes the wheelchairs, adding that there are about 200 wheelchairs now on their way to the country.

Read the New America Media profile here

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