Help The Blind Read By Visiting North Korea

October 20, 2009 at 2:28 PM | by egw | 0 Comments

Wilderness experts teach campers to leave a place better than they found it. A tour group responsible for more than half of all Westerners visiting North Korea has taken that sentiment to heart, asking travelers to donate to help children in the impoverished, often aid-rejecting country.

Koryo co-founders Josh Green and Nicholas Bonner, both Brits, came up with the idea for the company when Green was working for a shipping company in Pyongyang in the early '90s. Using his connections, they were able to connect with the Korea International Travel Company, an official government agency that ushers foreigners in and out of the DPRK, and now contribute to the Pyongyang International Film Festival and produce documentaries as well as leading tours.

Koryo's recent outreach efforts are bringing dictionaries and playground equipment to children in North Korea. Working with the Australian group the Marantha Trust, the tour group will sponsor the first ever printing of Braille dictionaries in North Korea, and build a recreation area for Wonsan Primary School Residential Home for children who have lost one or both their parents.

It's not voluntouring, but helping Koryo Tours out with these initiatives adds to their local cred which visitors can take advantage of on upcoming 2010 tours during next year's Mass Games (the socialist spectacular held between August and October when US citizens are allowed to visit) or, for non-US citizens, Chinese New Year or Kim Il Sung's birthday.

[Photo: yeowatzup]

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