Korean Christians to Support Agriculture, Education Sectors

Published: Friday June 13th, 2008.

President Kagame Tuesday received Reverend Kim Sam, founder and Senior Pastor of the Myung Sung Presbyterian Church in South Korea at Urugwiro Village.

Rev. Kim was accompanied by Ambassador Andrew Young and twenty-three members of the Myung Sung Church who are visiting Rwanda for the first time. Kagame and Kim discussed the delegation's visit to different parts of the country and the new initiatives that the Myung Sung Church plans to implement in Rwanda, which include water provision, support to agriculture, establishing technical and vocational training as well as educational exchanges with the church's network of universities.

The President expressed appreciation to Rev. Kim and his delegation for their decision to visit Rwanda and pointed out the increasing strong relations and friendship between the Governments and peoples of Rwanda and Korea, highlighted by a successful and memorable official visit to Korea earlier this month.

"This church is made up of philanthropists and entrepreneurs in different categories, and their trip was organized by the office of Good Works International (GWI) in Seoul," said Ambassador Andrew Young, the GWI founder. He said that the Koreans have been working with different African countries in the area of Agriculture.

The members of this church are active in funding activities in the areas of water, sanitation, health and education. The congregation also provides a pool of experienced professional expertise in different sectors.

Dr. Victor Yoon, who spoke on behalf of Rev. Kim, said that the congregation would soon set up a technical school that will help Rwandan youths acquire skills.

"They are especially active in enhancing small scale farming and water generation and we are looking at ways of how they can help Rwandan farmers acquire facilities such as tractors," said Young.

GWI has worked with Rwanda for the last five years under the auspices of 'Making it Happen in Rwanda'.

Young pointed out that these Christians have facilitated water projects in Tanzania where they have machines which draw water from as deep as 700 metres underground.

During President Kagame's recent trip to Korea he was hosted to a breakfast prayer meeting by members of this church. Founded in 1980, the Sung Presbyterian Church has 95,000 members.

Sourced by Frank Boampong