Croc hunter’s dream to educate

By MALUM NALU
Last month, South Korean man Kibyong Yun, who is well known in Papua New Guinea business and political circles, suffered a stroke which left part of his body paralysed.
A lesser man would have left PNG to seek better medical treatment overseas, however, Yun, 73, bit the bullet and stayed put.
He wanted to see his audio visualproject, known as ‘A School
In The Forest Without Teachers’, take off in PNG.
The Korean government recently established a film production unit name ‘Bitmaru’ as a government branch, while maintaining a national education channel named Korea Educational Broadcasting System (EBS).
With their combined experience, these two organisations will be the leading sponsors of the ‘A School Without Teachers’ project in PNG.
The dream is to see one apparatus distributed for every 200 villagers in PNG and be screened five hours a day.
The monthly distribution of USB drives contain 22 episodes of educational content and 30 episodes of content for village communal education.
Yun’s son Taesin, a 27-year-old university educated in the USA, came to Port Moresby from Seoul to look after him and to see his project off the ground.
Taesin grew up in Port Moresby and calls it home.
Yun tells me he has seen the need for better education in rural areas of the country since he first came to PNG in 1988 as a buyer of crocodile skins – a job which took him to some of the most remote areas of the country.
“To collect crocodile skins, I had to travel to some of the most remote areas of Papua New Guinea,” he says.
“I stayed with them and saw that children in the remote areas, although cute, had no education and were illiterate.
“I thought to myself, ‘how will Ieducate them without school’?
“So I conceived this idea with the intention of educating children in remote areas.”
Yun talked to manufacturers in Korea who came with components for the AV project.
He started as a buyer of crocodile skins in rural villages of PNG, and later became representative of Hanjun Power in the country and established the Kanudi Diesel Power Plant.
“I have a good relationship with political leaders of that time, including then Prime Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu, and we talked about many things including developing this country,” Yun says.
“Current Prime Minister Peter O’Neill is very happy with this development because one of his primary policies is free education.
“However, free education can only be done in the existing school system, and cannot be done in places where there are no schools.
“This device is a very good auxiliary tool to realise the dream of free education.”
Central Governor Robert Agarobe had made a commitment to purchase sets of the device for villages in his province.
Morobe Governor Ginson Saonu and East New Britain’s Nakikus Konga have also expressed their interest.
The device consists of a large LCD screen with a USB port, a solar generator and wiring to play pre-recorded programmes.
“This is not for commercial purposes but for education,” Yun says
“This is a quality product custom-made in South Korea for villages in PNG.”
Taesin says a USB drive containing pre-recorded programmes is plugged into the screen which automatically plays.
“There aren’t any buttons so it’s very simple to operate,” he explains.
“The videos in the USB are movies to develop the mindsets of people.
“Basically, villagers are not aware of what’s going on in the city, new laws that are passed or policies that affect their lives.
“This device allows the Government administration to disseminate information to the people.
“For example, if there is an earthquake, they will know as it allows them to know what is going on outside of the village.
“It gives the villagers the ability to participate in government and exercise their rights as citizens of Papua New Guinea.
“As you now, Papua New Guinea is very rich in natural resources, but ever since Independence in 1975, the country hasn’t changed.
“If you look at Korea, after gaining Independence and going into the Korean War, it became the No. 10 economy in the world.
“We don’t have natural resources, but how Korea was able to achieve that economic miracle, was because Koreans have a very strong foundation in and very high value of education.
“No matter how poor Koreans were, they studied hard, to this day.
“If you look at Papua New Guinea, over the last 40 years, no proper standards have been made despite all the natural resources.
“What is the problem?
“The key problem is poverty and the uneducated population of Papua New Guinea.
“Most of the people live in rural areas and are still illiterate.
“If we don’t fix that problem, we’ll never be able to develop Papua New Guinea.
“The key objective of this project is to help Papua New Guinea develop.
“The first step towards makingthings happen for Papua New Guinea is education.”
Yun is confident the device can be a very important development tool to assist government.
“It will educate rural people and put PNG on the same level as other countries,” he says confidently.
“The world is running but Papua New Guinea is still crawling.
“This device can make Papua New Guinea run and competewith the world.
“It will develop possibilities for Papua New Guinea in a good way.”
Where there’s a will there’s away, and Kibyong Yung despite his stroke, is determined to make the ‘A School In The Forest Without Teachers’ project a success.
Yung wants to leave his legacy in PNG when he goes.
He has a very capable assistant in his son Taesin.