Non-governmental organizations

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs, 비정부기구/非政府機構, 비영리 민간단체/非營利民間團體) are legally constituted corporations created by natural persons or legal entities that operate independently from any form of government. The term originated from the United Nations, and normally refers to organizations that are not a part of a government and are not conventional for-profit businesses.

Though an NGO is funded totally or partially by the government, the NGO maintains its non-governmental status by excluding government representatives from membership and operation of the organization. In general, NGOs are non-profit organizations.

Key words
NGO, NPO, civil organization, sponsorship, donation,

Statutory ground
The Nonprofit Civil Organization Support Act (비영리 민간단체지원법) was established in 2000, and amended from time to time, to ensure the voluntary activities of the nonprofit civil organizations and to help them develop to sound non-governmental organizations thus enhancing their public interest activities and promoting democratic society.

According to Article 2 of the above Act, the nonprofit civil organization, which is to be registered with the central government, metropolitan city or province, is defined as:
 * 1) the directly affected beneficiary shall be unidentified multitudes (or general public);
 * 2) the profit shall not be distributed to members;
 * 3) the purpose shall not be, in fact, to support a specific political party or its candidates, nor to promote teachings of a specified religion;
 * 4) the constant members shall be more than one hundred people;
 * 5) the activities of public interest nature shall be recently performed for more than one year; and
 * 6) in case of other organization than a juridical person, a representative or manager shall be appointed.

Types
NGOs are classified by their purpose or orientation, and level of operations as follows:
 * Charitable NGOs are oriented toward meeting the needs of the poor at home and abroad.
 * Service NGOs are concerned to provide health, family planning or education services in which the programme is designed by the NGO and people are expected to participate in its implementation and in receiving the service.
 * Participatory NGOs are characterized by self-help projects where local people are involved particularly in the implementation of a project by contributing cash, tools, land, materials, labour etc. In the classical community development project, participation begins with the need definition and continues into the planning and implementation stages.
 * Empowering NGOs aim to help poor people develop a better environment of the social, political and economic factors affecting their lives, and to enhance their awareness of their own potential power to control their lives.

NGOs in Korea
Theses days Korean charity NGOs are actively promoting their activities by various means. They are in great need of sponsorship from ordinary citizens:
 * World Vision (월드비전) was founded in 1950 from the ashes of the Korean War by Pastors Hahn Kyeong-Jik and Bob Pears. In 1991, World Vision Korea marked its historical transition into a donor country from a receiving country.
 * Good Neighbors (굿네이버스) is an international humanitarian and development NGO in General Consultative Status with the UN ECOSOC. Good Neighbors has made great strides in its mission by providing people around the world with a better quality of life since its establishment in Korea, 1991.
 * Korea Food for the Hungry International (기아대책) was founded in 1971 as a Christian NGO to raise awareness of poverty and hunger around the world, bring food and love to the hungry with the spirit of bread and gospel and help them build secure, self-sufficient communities.
 * Korean Red Cross (대한적십자사) was established in 1905 as Kign Gojong signed Geneva Conventions I and II in 1903. During the Japanese occupation period, it moved to Shanghai. After the Liberation in 1945, it was reformed as the Korea National Red Cross. Its first major relief operation was for war victims during the Korean War. Since then, Korean Red Cross evolved to become a major humanitarian organisation to help Korean people and to conduct disaster response, blood service and inter-Korean humanitarian issues.
 * Community Chest of Korea (사회복지공동모금회) aims at joint fund-raising and fair distribution of charitable funds to other NGOs and communities in need of financial and technical assistance. It operates Fruits of Love (사랑의 열매) campaign and the Honor Society to which only donors of more than 100 million won are admitted.
 * Beautiful Foundation (아름다운재단) was established in 2000 to stage a social campaign to donate one percent of one's income to help the underprivileged in Korea.
 * World Together (월드투게더) was founded in 2005 to help neglected neighbors from all over the world who are suffering from hunger, and to allow them to live abundant lives and also transform their quality of life.
 * Habitat for Humanity Korea (해비타트) is a non-profit ecumenical Christian housing organization dedicated to eliminating poverty housing and homelessness. Habitat for Humanity is a partnership between families in need, donors and volunteers. Houses are not given away but sold on long-term mortgages at no profit and no interest. Homeowner families themselves invest their own labor - “sweat equity” - into building their homes and homes of others. Donors, individuals, and organizations contribute cash and materials for building projects.
 * 초록우산 어린이재단 (Child Fund with Green Umbrella) is providing sponsorship to children at home and abroad in great need of financial aid, education, medical treatment, etc.

Activities
Ms. Hahn Bi-ya (한비야) is very famous in Korea in that she worked on the various catastrophic disaster sites like Tsunami-swept Indonesia, earth quake-stricken Haiti, draft-starved African countries. Also she provided some unidentifiable issues relating to young women's traveling in foreign countries. Now Ms. Hahn became an advisor to the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund.

Recruit
Korean NGOs are suffered from shortage of competent specialists in public relations, marketing, financial management, etc. But young applicants are wondering how they can be recruited by international NGOs. So to speak, they are dreaming of Hahn Bi-ya like activities on the scene worldwide in need of charitable services. It's only one aspect of NGO activities.