"He ran along beside us. Before long, he caught our attention. We spoke in hand signals to each other. We laughed together. We gave him something to eat. We found out his name. We shook hands. Kim had become our little friend. In the evening, he reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a grain of rice, and laid it in Gmeiner's hand. Then he disappeared. [...] That evening, the idea for the grain of rice scheme was born" (from: Hansheinz Reinprecht: Abenteuer Nächstenliebe. Die Geschichte Hermann Gmeiners und der SOS-Kinderdörfer, Vienna 1984.)
A memorable moment: Hermann Gmeiner and Kim - Photo: SOS Archives
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This encounter with the little Korean boy Kim and his grain of rice was to launch one of the most successful fund-raising campaigns, even by today's standards, and the start of SOS Children's Village work outside Europe.
At the beginning of 1963, the founder of SOS Children's Villages, Hermann Gmeiner, and two companions travelled to South Korea, which had been virtually destroyed by the war and its disastrous consequences. The trip was organised after a meeting with Maria Heissenberger, a development aid worker with the Catholic Women's Movement, who was looking after orphaned and abandoned children in South Korea. She appealed to Hermann Gmeiner for help for the thousands of orphans who were in desperate need.
Ten years after the end of the Korean War, Daegu, the country's third largest city, was a picture of hunger, cold, poverty and forlornness, as was the rest of South Korea. "And there are children everywhere. Abandoned children, dressed in rags and emaciated." (H. Reinprecht) Kim Chung Suk, the young boy from the streets of Daegu, delivered a message in the form of a grain of rice. In Korea, rice symbolises health, peace, long life and good fortune. Hermann Gmeiner commissioned Kim to mobilise all his friends to also bring him a grain of rice.
He then returned to Europe with a sack full of rice and started the 'Grain of Rice for Korea!' campaign. Millions of single grains of rice ("a grain of rice for a dollar") were sent to households in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Scandinavian countries and even to the USA. Construction of the SOS Children's Village in Daegu was begun that very same year - something that had been considered unthinkable and impossible before their visit.
A new generation at the Daegu village - Photo: SOS Archives
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Today it is hard to imagine the conditions of misery that thousands and thousands of children were forced to endure, and the extent of the economic, social and psychological damage that had been caused. Today around 80 children run around and play in the garden and the site of the SOS Children's Village, which also runs a kindergarten for the local community, a youth facility, a home for retired SOS Mothers and an educational therapy centre.
The village is not far away from the Dongdaegu highway bus terminal, Daegu airport or from the Dongdaegu train station, and stands in the shadow of the majestic Palgong. A small river flows close by and the cherry trees, which boast their blossom in spring, complete the picture of beauty and harmony. However, there are still thousands of children in South Korea who are still in need of help. In contrast to the children of 40 years ago, the majority of them today are so-called "social orphans" who cannot grow up in their natural family - the third generation of children in the SOS Children's Villages who have found a family-like home.