ANA CLARA VAZ FERREIRA
The peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula is a dream, a challenge, and a goal, but for most, it’s still a utopia. Supporting this cause in Brazil brings a new load of trials.
Explaining why this is such an important pursuit for people all around the world is challenging. After all, Brazil is a country so distant from Asia that it seems to have no present history of involvement in the Korean division, besides its role during the Korean War in the 50´s.
The biggest challenge is to get people to feel the reality of most North Korean citizens. People from a country in which we don’t see their faces on the news, we don’t hear what happens there in their everyday life, and we don’t know what it’s like to have friends and family living through that North Korean system. A country, often hidden from global media, of hardship, isolation, and suppression, contrasting sharply with the nation’s nuclear capabilities and vast natural resources.
The Urgency of Unification
North Korea holds one of the most powerful nuclear bases and natural resources, while its people starve and freeze to death. These should be enough reasons for the entire planet to unite for peace and freedom on the peninsula. However, our ignorance can prevent us from using our empathy and fraternity.
My Journey with GPF
As a student in administration, my journey with the Global Peace Foundation (GPF) began when I attended one of their seminars on the unification of Korea, hosted at “Universidade Federal de Goiás” (UFG), the college I had just started to attend a month prior. What started as curiosity, interest in world politics, and an appreciation for both Korean cultures became a true care for the cause. It was then and there, after the insightful visions brought by Namsik Yoo and Hyun-seung Lee, a North Korean escapee, at the GPF Brazil lecture, that I decided to join GPF and become a volunteer.
When I joined GPF for this cause, I worried about not accomplishing the mission and about not being able to connect with people on this mission the way GPF managed to connect with me. Still, I was excited to try and do something about it.
The Anápolis Event
In the short two months that I’ve been in this project, the event in Anápolis, Goiás, was surely the most challenging, and yet the best one. Groups of students, professors, and fans of the event started showing up and questioning the campaign: how it works, what its goal is, and how a tiny signature would matter in the big picture.
And that is the most important and exciting part: to be able to present this important cause. Of course, not everyone who came to our booth wanted to listen to us or sign up for the Korean Dream 10 Million Campaign, but those who were genuinely curious made my day.
I met people who were engaged in knowing how the tension on the Korean borders could affect the planet and why their signature would matter so much, which gave me the chance to go deeper into the true meaning of this project: union and freedom. The ones who heard us and debated with us left our booth with a signature, a message of strength in this pursuit, and less ignorance of the pain of others.
Personal Growth
To undertake this volunteering, I had to first learn that every individual’s action builds the big picture that brings real change: our union towards peace is what can truly achieve it.
I left my own ignorance behind to help others open their hearts to this cause. I hope we can have a greater impact with more people caring for our brothers and sisters, whether they’re our next-door neighbors or from the other side of the planet.
Message to the World
I am thankful for everyone who received us with open hearts at the event, everyone who questioned the power of one signature and had the courage to listen without judgment. I thank all of the curious minds who were willing to learn more about the cause and all of the kind hearts who had a positive message for Korea, and I hope we can continue to grow in peace and love. Learn more about the Korean Dream 10 Million Campaign.
Ana Clara Vaz Ferreira is a One Korea Brazil volunteer and university student at the Federal University of GOIAS, Administration Faculty.
