A man is sending wheelchairs to impoverished countries around the world after being unable to continue 24 years of providing meals to the homeless due to COVID-19. Hee Dahl Park, the CEO of the volunteer organization Tiny Share of Field Activity (TSOFA) in Oakland, California, is the one behind the initiative.
The wheelchairs he donates are sending a message of warm humanity across ideologies and borders, including North Korea, Myanmar, and Kyrgyzstan.
Park and his colleagues have sent a total of 3,912 wheelchairs so far. A container can hold 250 wheelchairs, so by container sent nearly 20. Estimatedly, 4,000 people with disabilities around the world have been given new legs with the wheelchairs he has sent.
The “Send a Wheelchair of Love” campaign first began in 2003, when 20 wheelchairs were delivered to 20 disabled people through the Bethesda Foundation on Christmas Day. In 2006, the movement crossed the barriers between churches and delivered 120 wheelchairs to Caritas Seoul, and in 2007, the movement began to promote exchanges between North and South Korea by sending 120 wheelchairs to six hospitals in the Cheongjin area of the North Hamgyong Province, North Korea. When they began sending wheelchairs, North Korea also sent a letter of thanks and a reply about how they shared the wheelchairs. In a reply sent in 2020 in the name of the Korean Disabled Persons Protection Alliance, it was stated that 25 wheelchairs were sent to each of the Jikdong Coal Mine, Cheonseong Coal Mine, and Cheongnam Coal Mine in the South Pyongan Province. A small act of sharing temporarily warmed up the conflict.
In 2016-2018, 600 wheelchairs were sent to Myanmar, 260 wheelchairs were sent to Kyrgyzstan in 2019, and 250 wheelchairs were sent to Nepal through the Um Hong Gil Foundation in 2020, helping the disabled across borders and barriers continues every year. Such service was possible thanks to the thousands of anonymous donations that have been made since Park’s homeless breakfast service.
The reason why donors gather to support Park’s wheelchair delivery is the transparency of donations. He discloses the process of how the funds sent by the donors are used and how many wheelchairs have been donated to whom, not only on the website but also to each donor.
This transparent disclosure has led to an entrepreneur who donates $10,000 every year and an elderly lady who sent $1,000 for the first time and is now donating $3,000. North Korea also initially refused to disclose the information but later sent a reply to the wheelchair distributor after Park’s insistence on transparency.
Park, who plans to send wheelchairs to Vietnam next year, said, “Thanks to the transparent disclosure, the number of sponsors is increasing,” and expressed his gratitude once again, saying, “I am so grateful to the kind donors who have been supporting us.”
For more information, call (510)708-2533 or visit tsofa.org.
BY MANGYO SUH, HOONSIK WOO [woo.hoonsik@koreadaily.com]
