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Yeouido, Seoul, SOUTH KOREA – As a child, Cho Myung Hwan depended on help from strangers. He never dreamed he would achieve academic success or be in charge of one of his country’s largest charities.
Like the fable of the tortoise and the hare, Cho, who leads World Vision Korea, thinks of himself as the slow moving, but ultimately victorious, tortoise.
Growing up
For most of his life, there were two things Cho tried to keep a secret. The first is that he was a sponsored child – someone who sought help through a charity from a generous donor.
“It was embarrassing to say,” he admitted.
Cho said his parents sought refuge during the Korean War and struggled financially, leading to receiving numerous sponsorships from people who came and went in his life.
Even though South Korea is now a well-developed country compared to the past, when Cho told the younger generation that he was a sponsored child, he used to worry that they would think his parents were unqualified and unskilled just because the family received money from sponsors.
Cho, born only a few years after the end of the war, was worried that people would think his parents unworthy because other parents were able to provide a really good education and tools for their children.
Due to these child sponsorships, Cho said he was often asked what he wanted to be when he was older. He frequently listed the typical jobs related to his current obsessions back then, such as firefighter or a famous baseball player.
Academics did not come easily
Cho’s other secret from his younger years is that he almost wasn’t able to go to college because he wasn’t a great student and he didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up.
A family friend who was a professor helped him get into Konkuk University, he said. He studied biotech – “the most unpopular subject at that time,” he said and eventually graduated.
After further studies in the U.S., he returned to Korea and went to work as a professor at Konkuk University.
But when he turned 60 years old, he told a story about his life to a group of people and they were really touched by the story. That made him open up more and gave him the confidence to give public speeches and lectures about his story.
A publishing company later contacted him and asked if he would be willing to write a book about his life because they thought that it would be the perfect book, one that would inspire many people.
In 2017, the Korean publishing house 두란노 released his memoir 꼴지 박사, or Dr. Last.
Today, he is president and chief executive officer of World Vision Korea and his story has inspired many South Koreans.
University years
The first time Cho went to Konkuk University – where he was in the engineering school – the basics they taught were science, physics, and math. But according to Cho, he was artistic and “bad at studying.” Studying hard sciences was difficult for him.
Although he studied really hard and tried his best, Cho said his grades in his first year were a D, D, D, and an F.
“My grades were low and I was really tired but I had to go to university, so I did my best,” said Cho. “I had a hard time studying my major.”
Later, Stanford University Prof. Baruch Blumberg, who won a Nobel Prize for discovering the hepatitis B vaccine, invited Cho to Stanford to study and do research on AIDS as a visiting scholar.
At Stanford, he learned how science can turn into business, Cho said. That work led him to the Harvard Kennedy School to study social sciences related to leadership, politics, public administration, and economics.
After spending time back home in South Korea, Cho went back to the United States to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s business school. At MIT, he studied applications of blockchain technology in businesses.
As Cho explained it, the benefit of blockchains is that they are hard to change or edit. Also, if you input information into a blockchain, it stays there forever and cannot be altered, which makes it really transparent.
Later, Cho found a way to use blockchains in his charity work with World Vision Korea, a non-governmental organization.
“At that time, I had no idea that I would implement that into NGOs since it was before I came to World Vision,” Cho said.
Today, World Vision uses blockchain technology.
“So when donors donate to World Vision, it is really important to be transparent,” said Cho.
If a donor gives 10 dollars, Cho said, they might wonder if the gift will reach the children and people who are in need. NGOs have to be trustworthy, Cho said, so that people will donate again.
By using blockchains, NGOs can show every detail of how the donated money was used.
“This is why blockchains are extremely useful and I eventually decided to implement them into NGOs, and I am now creating blockchain platforms,” said Cho.
Meeting his longtime sponsor
Usually sponsoring ends at the age of 18, but Edna Nelson, Cho’s sponsor through Save the Children, continued to sponsor him until he was 45 years old.
Nelson was living in a very small town in Nebraska, U.S., Cho said, and her last job was working as a cleaning lady in a convenience store.
Cho, who met his sponsor for the first time when she was 99 years old, said Nelson never had the opportunity to ride an airplane or travel the world.
“She was living in a more impoverished situation than I was. I mean, who would continue to donate to a middle-aged man who is now a professor at a university and someone who doesn’t necessarily need the money?”
Worrying about Nelson’s advancing age, Cho made a special trip to the U.S. just to meet the woman he called his “second mother.” In the past, she had discouraged him from coming to see her, he said, so he didn’t tell her he was on his way.
He parked the car in front of her house, he said, but – overcome with emotion – sat inside the vehicle crying for nearly an hour before approaching her door.
Her sister answered the door and had him wait while she got ready to greet him. She spent a couple of hours getting ready, he said, even putting on a special outfit, doing her make up and hair.
When he finally saw her, Cho said, she looked to him like the prettiest woman he had ever seen.
But Cho said that if Nelson had only sponsored him when he was a child and not until age 45, then Cho probably would just think of it as a precious memory and that would be it.
Cho said he thinks that Nelson, who died at age 105, wanted to tell him to always remember that he received child sponsorship and indirectly advise him to pass down the generosity and all the help he has received.
About World Vision Korea
World Vision Korea, which is a part of World Vision International, is a non-governmental organization (NGO), primarily known for providing humanitarian aid to those who are living through various hardships.
Many people think that World Vision started in the U.S. but it was actually founded in Korea.
“American missionary Bob Pierce decided to help because of the Korean War, and he teamed up with a Korean named Han Kyung Jiik and established this in 1950,” said Cho.
As the Korean War began, Pierce went to America to collect money to help those in need, mostly children orphaned by the war.
Though World Vision was founded during the Korean War, it now helps 105 countries worldwide. Today World Vision is one of the world’s biggest nonprofit organizations, ranking 19th globally, according to Forbes.
Giving back
Many children who received sponsorship at a young age in South Korea often visit World Vision Korea’s headquarters to express their thanks and appreciation for the organization’s help, Cho said.
Around a year ago, an old woman knocked on World Vision Korea’s doors in Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea. Although she was living in extremely poor conditions, the woman told Cho that she was there to repay the long ago kindness she received from World Vision when she was young.
She was holding 2 million won, or about $1,365 U.S. dollars, in cash, he said. Because she was old and poor, she lived on a small subsidy from the government and small amounts of money she earned from collecting trash. And her donation came from that, he said.
Surprised by the woman’s heart-warming gesture, Cho asked for her name. But she said she wanted to stay anonymous – and said she planned to return with more money.
World Vision wants to continue the cycle of giving to others and hope for a better society, Cho said. His message to the younger generation is to take care of one another and help those who are in need.
Though he no longer needs a sponsor, he knows what it feels like to feel dependent on the kindness of a stranger.
“My only job is thinking about how to help one more person and share kindness with people all over the world. How can I not be the happiest person in the world?” asked Cho.
Josephine Lee, a Reporter with Youth Journalism International, reported this story and translated Cho’s words from Korean into English.
