On the 3rd of April, members of the Green Party of Korea, in the UK for the Global Greens Congress in Liverpool, took time out of their schedules to visit Stroud, and to explore many of the environmental and social innovations in the local area. Below is a letter from Youngmee reflecting on the visit – and highlighting the importance of a global green movement for sustainable, resilient communities.
Dear members of Stroud District Green Party,
On behalf of the twelve delegates of Green Party Korea to Stroud last week, I’d like to deliver my sincere and heartfelt gratitude to you all for so warmly hosting us. We were truly overwhelmed by your hospitality.
We had a wonderful time throughout the visit. We enjoyed, first of all, the kind hospitality by each of the five families who gladly provided us with such nice accommodations. Then, we really enjoyed and learned a lot from the sustainability initiatives you and other extraordinary people of Stroud are implementing through the visit. Transition Stroud movement, Springhill co-housing project, CSA and food-related initiatives, forest school run by Severn View Primary School, innovative rural Suds project, Stroud Brewery for localized economy, and Ecotricity for local renewable energy; each one of them was so interesting and had many to learn about.
We’d like to extend our sincere thanks to the District and Town Councils of Stroud for taking their valuable time and hosting us, and for giving us kind and informative presentations on what they do in general and what they’ve done to improve community sustainability. I’d like to thank each one of those who were present in the meetings for their interest in our visit and for their warm hospitality. Additionally, we found out only when we were leaving that the District Council put up the Korean national flag in front of the council building. We’d like to deliver our belated thankfulness for that; it was such kind and considerate.
Each of the visits was carefully and earnestly prepared with so many people involved including the school boys and a girl at the primary school. At every visit, people gave us such kind and informative explanations and we really enjoyed them. Besides, to get us move around, you carefully prepared cars and drivers from the moment we arrived in Stroud until the final visit. We had such a good time at the welcoming dinner on Monday evening. We were so honored for so many people to be there to say hello to us. The only thing that we felt sorry about was the fact that our visit was too short.
To summarize, you’ve done an amazing job for us. It was such impressive and happened in such a short time, and I feel that something magical happened. It was a magic that could only be realized through the enormous efforts including the time-consuming coordination since our first email correspondence in mid-January, on the other hand. I cannot thank you too much and will never forget.
Now, we will make the most of what we got to know and learned during the visit; the lessons will be greatly helpful for us to study alternative policies and plan campaigns in the area of community resilience and sustainability, in particular.
Personally, I’m now more confident than before that, to change the world, it is wise and fast actually to do something now that can contribute to changing the world even if it’s very small, rather than wait and try to change the world. Plus, I’m more confident that the first step to tackle community issues and problems should be to try to find the solutions within the community and with the social/physical resources that already exist in the community. This way, it is more sustainable and resilient. This ethos is what I truly believe we at GP Korea need to more widely, vigorously and confidently promote in my country.
I’m so glad that I’ve come to know you all and Stroud through this visit. I’m so proud that you are part of us and that we are part of you as Greens.
Let’s keep in touch so that we can further learn from and cooperate with each other. It would be great if we could hear about successful stories of sustainability and resilience from Stroud continuously. We will do what we can do, and hope to have a chance to share our stories about sustainable and resilient community with you in the future.
Lastly, I wish best luck to each one of you at Stroud District Green Party, and huge success in coming elections!
Best wishes,
Youngmee on behalf of the GP Korea delegation to Stroud in April, 2017
More photos from the visit are available at the following web address: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kgreens/sets/72157678846324954