“I don’t think that aid recipients should permanently be reminded of the fact that they are aid recipients” – how development work can keep a person away from home and why a boy’s weight is important.

Kathi Zellweger, Director, International Cooperation for Caritas Hong Kong, Hong Kong, P. R. China

A seven year old boy in South Korea is 125 cm tall and weighs 26 kg on average. What do you think are the measures for a seven year old boy in North Korea? - He is on average 105 cm tall, that means 20% smaller, and weighs 16 kg, that means 40% lighter. That is one of the true problems that North Korea faces, not only the nuc-lear power discussion that is presented daily in the Wes-tern news. This is also the kind of problem that Kathi Zellweger, Director at Caritas-Hong Kong and, for more than 10 years, responsible for Caritas in North Korea, tries to ad-dress with her organization.
When she left Switzerland at the end of the 70ies, she did not expect to work for such a long period in Asia but extremely challenging and interesting projects kept coming up and she never wanted to re-sist. However, as Kathy admits in our discussion in her Hong Kong office, it is not easy to travel around for almost 180 days a year, sometimes without running water for weeks. Apart from the physical chal-lenges, work in countries with political environments like China or North Korea requires a lot of patience, sensitivity and willpower. But after all these tough years, Kathy is satisfied with the impact she has within the Caritas orga-nization. She is convinced that, compared with many other organizations, Caritas does a very meaningful and effective work by combining efficiency and professionalism with a human face.

Let us share some impressions of what we talked about with Kathi Zellweger in the following lines. You might be able to read more about her and her challenging work in our book “MyImpact”.

Kathi Zellweger’s selected quotations:
“For me, work in the social area and development has al-ways been a target. School and working experiences had the goal to equip me with the necessary tools.”

“I planned to work in Hong Kong for 2 years, but then interesting projects and challenges kept coming up; there were the Vietnamese refugees, then China opened to the world and now I am focusing on North Korea.”

“I like the feeling that I can change things, move them. It may not be much, overall, but small improvements are al-ways possible.”

“Financial sustainability of the projects is very vital. Sometimes, when only the heart is working, things tend to end quite quickly. Then it comes to “managing good-will”, as I like to call it.”

“I have never regretted having taken the decisions that I took for my life. It is deeply satisfying to encounter people who are better off because of what we do. Also, you get more satisfied with what you have yourself, you value it much more.”

“I don’t think that aid recipients should permanently be reminded of the fact that they are aid recipients; the branding of NGOs and foundations is often exaggerated.”

“I dream about taking a one-year break at some point and of doing things there is never time for; a photography course, a lot of reading…”

Some background on Kathi Zellweger:
Originally from Switzerland (Teufen close to St. Gallen), Kathi’s educational background is in administration, social work and deve-lopment management. She received her MA from the School for Interna-tional Training in Brattleboro, Ver-mont, in 1992 and she has been wor-king in Asia for the last 25 years for Caritas. Since 1986 she is Director of the International Cooperation for Caritas Hong Kong.
For many years Kathi Zellweger was the driving force behind Caritas-Hong Kong’s challenging work in China and for the past 10 years she has shifted her focus to North Korea, for which Caritas Hong Kong is the lead agency within the international Caritas network. Mrs. Zellweger has worked and traveled extensively in China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), working with donors, beneficiaries, government and UN officials, and NGO colleagues to develop pioneering projects and programs.

Some background on CARITAS:
Caritas (meaning charity, love) is one of the largest hu-manitarian networks in the world and was established in Germany in 1897. Today, all Caritas organizations are part of Caritas Internationalis, an international Confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service agencies working in 200 countries and territories with Caritas Internationalis based in the Vatican.
Caritas fights against poverty, exclusion, intolerance, and discrimination. It empowers people to participate fully in all matters affecting their lives, and it advocates on their behalf at national and international levels. Caritas assis-tance is given to people in need, irrespective of race, gender, religious affiliation or philosophy of life. It serves the last, the least and the lost. Ultimately, helping people to help themselves is its guiding principle.
Caritas Hong Kong was founded in 1953 and consists of 4.900 full-time staff and thousands of volunteers, serving in three different main areas: social services (support for families, unemployment, services for the elderly), educa-tion services (special education and vocational training, adult and higher education services), and medical servi-ces (three hospitals, public/private interface, and inte-grated health care services). Some 20 years ago Caritas Hong Kong started linking up with Mainland China organi-zations involved in education, health care and social services. Until today Caritas Hong Kong is active in the field of disability, drinking water, education and natural disasters.
Since autumn 1995, Caritas is the liaison for the assis-tance for North Korea, especially taking care of the follo-wing areas: food, support for the health sector, agricul-ture/food security and children in need for special care.

If you would like to engage with the work of Kathi Zell-weger or get to know more about CARITAS please visit www.caritas.org.hk/northkorea/,
or for more specific possibilities contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch