Mobilizing the modest savings and the shared concern of many is the secret to generating capital for all types of progress. The key questions, however, are who will manage and who will use this capital. Small funds well used often can accomplish more than large loans encumbered by bureaucratic restraints. Group savings also induce people to think ahead for their own and a national future, rather than spend immediately all they earn.
Organizations to accumulate savings by members were informally operating centuries ago in several of Asia's ancient civilizations. It was the Germans in the mid-19th century, however, who first institutionalized credit unions. From Scandinavia and the Rochdale community in England, the cooperative idea spread to Canada and America and both American and European missionaries organized credit unions in Asia. By 1970 national and regional associations joined to form the World Council of Credit Unions, headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
Sung-Ga, South Korea's first credit union, was inaugurated in May 1960. It was inspired by the ideas and efforts of Maryknoll Sister Mary Gabriella Mulherin, who had been influenced by the Antigonish Movement in Canada. AUGUSTINE JOUNG RYUL KANG, who became the first president of Sung-Ga, and his associates were concerned with shifting the emphasis in postwar Korea from relief to self-help. Through seminars they determined that a cooperative offered the greatest promise of developing common bonds based on close human relationships.
From a start of 28 members in this first credit union, the movement in Korea has grown steadily. The Korean Credit Union League by 1980 had a membership of over 800,000 persons in 1,467 credit unions with savings in Korean currency equivalent to some US$200 million.
Five basic principles were taught to credit union leaders and members: 1) each person is important; 2) every man has the potential to become master of his own destiny; 3) education which calls forth action is the most important; 4) self-help and a cooperative spirit are basic to social development, and 5) working thus it is possible to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor and to help people achieve both spiritual and material happiness.
When the Asian Confederation of Credit Unions was founded in April 1971 -- and affiliated a month later with the World Council -- KANG was elected general manager. He became, as he had in Korea, the moving spirit, enlisting devoted organizers of credit unions. He worked in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Nepal, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Singapore and, until 1975, in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. His unerring judgment of people and his skills in patiently establishing amicable feelings among collaborators, in providing creative ideas and in inspiring members, proved as effective elsewhere in Asia as they had earlier in Korea.
KANG was born in 1923 and educated at Chinnampo, in what became North Korea, and fled south during the Korean War in 1951. His deep commitment to applying Christianity to daily life is at the core of his sustained efforts to make credit unions effective cooperatives for better living.
In electing AUGUSTINE JOUNG RYUL KANG to receive the 1981 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, the Board of Trustees recognizes his practical democracy and use of regional cooperation to foster economically and humanly sound credit unions.
