Habitat for Humanity Korea

Overview

Habitat for Humanity Korea is the Korean affiliate of Habitat for Humanity, an international nonprofit organization founded in the United States in 1976. Working alongside volunteers, it builds or repairs homes for people who are homeless or who live in old and unsafe housing, that is, for people in housing need. Its stated vision is "a world where everyone has a decent place to live." In Korea it is also known as the "Love House-Building Movement." Although Habitat for Humanity International is known to have grown out of Christian principles, Habitat for Humanity Korea is an incorporated association that does not belong to any particular denomination.

Founding and History

• 1989: Dr. Ko Wang-in began preparations to establish Habitat in Korea.
• 1992: Dr. Chung Kun-mo became chairman of the board, and Dr. Ko Wang-in became chair of the executive committee. In the same year, the Habitat Korea Movement Headquarters was launched as an unincorporated association (a group not yet registered as a legal entity).
• 1994: The first three Habitat housing units in Korea were built in Gyeonggi Province. Sources differ on the location, giving it as either Uijeongbu or Yangju. Habitat for Humanity Korea reportedly regards December 17, 1994, as its founding date, and it marked its thirtieth anniversary in 2024.
• 1995: Under the name Korea Love House-Building Movement Association, it was authorized as a nonprofit public-interest corporation under what was then the Ministry of Construction and Transportation. Its date of incorporation is registered as September 13.
• 2011: The corporation changed its name to Habitat for Humanity Korea.
• 2017: The singer Yoon Hyung-joo became chairman of the board.

The organization's founding year is therefore given variously as 1992 (launch of the unincorporated association), 1994 (founding date), or 1995 (incorporation), depending on the criterion used.

Major Activities

• Home building: Builds homes for families without housing, working together with volunteers. Habitat for Humanity Korea calls this "Building Homes of Hope."
• Home repair and housing improvement: Repairs old houses and social welfare facilities to make them safe and livable.
• Self-reliance support: In addition to housing assistance, runs programs that help resident families become self-sufficient.
• Volunteering: Places great importance on "cooperative labor," in which volunteers, whether individuals or groups from corporations and other organizations, work directly on construction sites. Through this approach it aims to foster a new culture of giving.
• Housing support for persons of national merit: Conducts campaigns to repair aging homes occupied by persons of merit for Korean independence, Korean War veterans, and other persons of national merit, or by their descendants.

The Habitat name became widely known around the world through the construction volunteer work of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and his activities are also credited with raising the organization's profile in Korea. Churches sometimes take part in such construction volunteering as a form of almsgiving to help their neighbors and of diakonia (the practice of service).

Organization

Because Habitat for Humanity Korea is not an interdenominational body, it has no member denominations. It operates as an incorporated association, with headquarters in Jung District, Seoul. It works through regional chapters; the Daejeon chapter, for example, was established in 2007. It belongs to the international Habitat for Humanity network, which is active in some seventy countries around the world.