Here, there are more than 70 restaurants, stores and other initiatives cofunded by local residents. This restaurant is one example of their efforts. Translator members invested anywhere from 45 u. S. Dollars all the way up to 4,500. Thats how we built the restaurant. This soap store opened when four homemakers each invested 5,500. Each bar is handmade using natural materials. Translator my kid has allergies, but a natural soap really helped calm them down so i decided to try making it myself and thats how i got started. The cooperative businesses include a school. Unusually, the curriculum is decided by teachers and parents. In this community, the key concept is to provide whats truly necessary. Decisions are reached through heated discussions. Translator whatever you want to achieve, seongmisan maeul will help you get started. The Strong Community ties here create a very supportive environment. Its the relationships that count. A cooperative Community Run by its members, for its members. Discover everyday life in seongmisan maeul. This modest hill, 66 meters high, is seon fwrks mgmisan. Nearby residents formed the community. The community is known across south korea. One popular Tv Documentary focused on three days in seongmisan maeul reporting on its charms. The mapo area is in the west of central seoul. Seongmisan maeul is in mapo. Residents formed this community inform rating mao, the korean word for village, into the name. The seongmisa smrks maeul community began with a child center. It lies just off a name street. Named our Childrens Home, the center is operated using member contributions. Today, 35 children aged between 1 and 5 are cared for by 7 staff. Thats a better than average ratio of childminders to children. And it means that each child gets more care and attention. Translator this facility can be traced to a group of participaparents who were concerned about their children. As the group developed, they saw a need for a safe, supportive space where dualincome parents could place their kids. That led to this cooperative Childcare Center. In 1994, the center was set up with funding from 25 30something couples with fulltime careers. With most childcare facilities in those days situated in hi highrise buildings, kids were often stuck inside a small room all day. Wanting room for their children to grow, these parents built their own center near seongmisan. Translator its very rare to find green spaces anywhere in seoul. Its amazing that these kids get to play outside. To enter their children here, parents pay an upfront fee followed by Monthly Payments of 270. The center even has its own catering staff. Meals here are safe for children with allergies or atrophy. Great care is taken over ingredients and seasoning. Most parents take turns to clean the center and help care for the children. Translator the kids grow here, but so do parents like us. Forming relationships with other parents is one of the great things about this place. Like the parents who opened the center 22 years ago, todays parents care for the safety and health of their children. In 2001, the same residents who set up the center decided to build a Consumer Cooperative food store. It was the second business formed by the seongmisan maeul community. 50 people, mainly young mothers, each invested between 80 and 800. The stores goal was to provide organic food that was safe for young children. Seongmisan maeul began from just 25 families. One incident in particular forged the communitys identity and drew attention to its appeal. In 2001, the city of seoul announced a development scheme. It would have transformed the neighborhood and this scenery would have been lost. The plans called for leveling seongmisan hill and building a reservoir. The Natural Environment was threatened with destruction. Local residents and parents protested fiercely based on Detailed Research into the citys water storage capacity. They insisted that the construction was unnecessary. Eventually, the plans were scrapped in 2003. Translator after that battle, we realized that our community needed to voice its concerns. We came together to talk about what kind of future we wanted to build. Taking action to make dreams come true. The experience helped boost confidence and Community Members began to widen their activities. The conservation protests helped raise the communitys profile. More families flocked to seongmisan maeul each year. She has been part of the community for 11 years. She and her husband have three children. Her husband works at a major credit card firm. His annual salary is around 100,000. Both parents graduated from top universities. These days, tim is focused on looking after the children. When the family moved to the area in 2005, kim was combining childcare with a fulltime job at an internet company. The main factor in their decision to relocate was the Childcare Center. Translator i had my first child in 2002. Three years before we moved here. I wanted to keep working so i left my baby with a regular daycare provider. When i went to pick him up one day, he was being fed instant noodles instead of baby food. Hed always had allergies and was constantly scratching at his neck and other places. Theres a strong link between atrophy and diet, so ultimately i felt i couldnt leave him at daycare anymore. It was around them that we heard about seongmisan maeuls cooperative Childcare Center where parents are involved in management. Thats why we decided to move here. The son kim was so concerned about is now 13 and in junior high school. His two sisters also went to the Childcare Center as their mother continued to work. Translator quite a lot of my colleagues are interested in seongmisan maeul. A lot of female colleagues in their 30s ask me about it. Some people are thinking of marriage while others already have children and are thinking about childcare. This community is a good model for them to consider. Seongmisan maeul is a valuable point of reference. The Biggest Issue for seongmisan maeul members is always how to raise their kids. Some members had concerns about many schools singleminded focus on entrance examinations. In 2004, they set up their own educational facility. Today it has 122 schoolaged students. Parents pay an initial 9,000 followed by Monthly Payments of 550. The curriculum is decided by parents and staff. It features a mix of such typical subjects as english and math with more unusual classes. Since the school is not government accredited, students must take a separate academic test before University Entrance exams. Here is a junior high class. The group is preparing a presentation for their younger schoolmates. The topic is an important one. Energy and the Natural Environment. Two members of the class will make the presentation. Their classmates play the role of the younger children who will be the audience for the presentation. Translator we are going to present a Renewable Energy to third, fourth, and fifth grade students. We practiced using powerpoint. Its fun. Like, playing. She teaches junior high. In 2004, she came to seongmisan maeul so her third grade son could attend this school. She has a painful memory that she cannot forget. Translator when i went to my sons former school to tell them that we were leaving, i told his classmates hes going to a different school, and right after that, one kid said, who are we going to beat up now . I was shocked. And when i went home, i spoke to my son. This is what i heard at your school. Whats going on . Thats when i found out that he was getting bullied by the other kids. I had no idea he was going through any of this. I promised i would pay more attention to him from then on. At the time, cho was an illustrator and visited the school regularly to check up on her son. She soon began helping out and eventually the principal asked if shed like to become a teacher. Translator the guiding principle of our school is independence and cooperation. Nobody can stand entirely alone. Weve become independent through building relationships and by working with others. Cooperation is an integral part of independence. We have a School Project called grannys lunch. The kids cook meals and deliver them to older people who live alone. In other schools, this would be seen as community service, but we dont see it that way. Its part of what it means to live as members of this community. The next morning, the two junior high students make their presentation. Theyll speak to 13 children aged between 9 and 11. They practice up until the last minute to get it right. They were greeted with applause, but theyve become so focused on reading that they dont look at their audience. Its hard to know how much the children are understanding. The younger childrens teacher asks a question on their behalf. The speakers struggle for an answer. Translator i think the children have concerns about their future, but they have their friends and me here. They can talk to people as much as they need and also tackle new challenges. Im a teacher. I want to make the best possible use of the time i have with the children. So i want to talk openly about how we feel. Moving beyond supporting children, some cooperative initiatives now focus on grownup pastimes. This theater was built in 2009. Members have formed theater companies, choirs, and rock bands with all groups sharing the space. It even has professional lighting and sound rigs. Some members built their own apartment block. From buying the land, to designing the exterior and interiors, the entire block was built through cooperation. Its six floors house around nine families and four offices. Talks are under way to build a new type of residence. An apartment complex for senior citizens. Today, theres a discussion on buying land. The first step of the process. About 20 Couples Exchange ideas about the steps involved in paying the deposit. Diverse careers, incomes, and family circumstances, its not surprising that these discussions are far from easy. Members say they dont know when the complex for older residents will be complete. Seongmisan maeul is built on the concept of strong neighborhood relations, but the methods used dont suit everyone. Some cooperative ventures have fallen by the wayside, while some residents have chosen to leave the community. Translator when i was a student or out in public, if there was someone it todidnt w to spend time with, i could just ignore them, just turn away. But if you do that here, you wouldnt be able to achieve anything. Youre forced to work with others. Instead of turning away, you thrash things out. No matter who youre talking to. You do your best to share your views. Thats the best and fastest way to communicate here. This restaurant was built through seongmisan pz maeul members joint investments. Just for today theyre serving a special menu to raise the restaurants profile and attract new customers. The special meal is a beef stew made by a junior high student at seongmisan school who wants to be a chef. It of t it costs just 2 more than a regular lunch. For this 14yearold, its a chance for him to achieve something he really wants. The seongmisan maeul philosophy extends to residents of all ages. The event was sponsored by 24yearold park min su who grow up here and was one of the first to attend the Childcare Center. Along with a childhood friend and their teacher at seongmisan school, park has recently set up an online store to sell various seon fwr se seongmisan maeul products. Parks team made cards to promote the new online store, promote the restaurant and support the dreams of a young chef. Killing three birds with one stone. Translator people here make some truly amazing things. I wanted a job that would promote those items, so i chose this. Some have told me that i wont make money doing what they see as volunteer work, but i want to build this into a Sustainable Business model. I want to make it clear that its possible to help others in this way. Today, the restaurant attracts 110 customers. Half of them newcomers. Sales are 2. 5 times higher than usual. On this day, kim and other seongmisan maeul members visit an apartment complex to welcome a friend whos moving in. They have a welcome gift of toilet paper, believed in korea to bring a peaceful life to households. The new family chose to move to the area for its Strong Community relationships. Even before they unpack, they prepared dozens of bean cakes, a traditional gift in south korea from newcomers to neighbors. Her daughter helps. The best way to get used to local life is to meet as many people as possible. Mother and daughter visit their neighbors as well as the stores and facilities theyll be using in the coming months. A welcome party. Up on the shared roof space, the newon comers are quickly settli in to the community. Translator were in seoul, but it feels like a Rural Community with all ages and genders. I think thats the real attraction of seongmisan maeul. Translator who knows what the future may hold, but for now i want to live here surrounded by friends. I want to find the right way to grow older alongside them. For the time being, i feel at home here. Kids from our Childrens Home head out to climb seongmisan. A Community Run by its members, for its members. 22 years after its creation, the spirit of seongmisan maeul lives on in a new generation. Hello there, welcome to nhk newsline. It is thursday october 13th, 9 00 a. M. Im Catherine Kobayashi in tokyo. A ceremony has been held on the indonesian island of bali to remember the victims of the 2002 bali bombings. 14 years ago, militants detonated bombs in a busy district the e resort island. 202 people were killed. Many of them foreign tourists. About 200 people attended the service on wednesday. They observed a moment of silence at the site of the bombings. The Current Governor of bali state was the lead Police Investigator into the attacks. He expressed
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