Life for New Chorwon

On 500 acres of well-kept land 80 miles northeast of Seoul, Korea, stands the village of New Chorwon, where some 500 people make a living from crops of potatoes, wheat, cabbage and barley. It is not an unusual village--except in being a village at all. Four years ago, the site was war-ravaged wasteland and the villagers hopeless wanderers. What gave them life was the gift of a 68-year-old Philadelphia lawyer who does not believe in Christmas presents but does believe in President Eisenhower's idea that foreign aid can be on a person-to-person basis.

The lawyer is Graham French, grandson of Drug Firm Founder Clayton French. For years, French gave CARE donations to the poor abroad instead of sending Christmas presents to friends at home. And then one day he heard of Ike's suggestion that private citizens should help alongside the Government's huge aid programs. French decided to create an entire community. CARE told him it would cost $10,000, and French chose Korea. "After all the years of trouble, I thought they deserved some help. Korea is one of the outposts of the free world."

The Korean government allotted land to a group of refugees who had slipped over the border from Communist North Korea. French's money bought a farm tool set for each family--sickles, hoes, shovels, picks, pitchforks. Then came fertilizer and seed, and a pair of bullocks. French got regular reports from CARE: when the first crops were harvested, when the first houses were completed, what special problems came up. Korea's winter is too harsh for farming, so French bought a machine to make straw rope for the village to use and barter. New Chorwon called it The Graham French-CARE Straw Rope and Bag Factory.

The village is now doing so well that the CARE adviser makes only occasional visits to check on its progress. Graham French himself is turning to other projects. He gave $10,000 to establish a similar village in South Viet Nam, another $10,000 to rehabilitate 200 wounded Korean veterans in a third village. A fourth $10,000 went to buy 30 fishing junks for two more Korean villages, and yet another $10,000 sent a mobile health unit to combat disease in the Philippines.

Through it all, Philanthropist French has never seen the fruits of his dollars. But this week he leaves for a 100-day trip to India, where another of his mobile health units will be donated--and early next year he plans to go to visit Korea. Says he: "It's amazing how little it costs you to be generous. I don't believe the American people have any idea of how far $10 can go in a foreign country."

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