Eugene Cho

Monday, March 22, 2010 • 6:19 pm 10

“vacationing” in a place with the 4th highest murder rate in the world

Hey everyone. Thanks for your love, support, and prayers.

Minhee and I (and one of my ODW volunteer staff) are currently “vacationing” in an “urban ghetto” marked with the 4th highest murder rate in the world. We’ve taken some personal vacation time to travel to Guatemala as invited guests (for a few days) to do research, learn, and network with some NGOs for some possible future partnerships. We are spending the bulk of our time with an NGO called Lemonada International.

We’ve heard and partly witnessed some painful stories of violence, drug abuse, broken families, and the ugly cycle of extreme poverty.

There is an estimate of 60-100K people living in the urban ghetto known as La Limonada. It is an urban slum community built Read the rest of this entry »

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Monday, March 15, 2010 • 12:01 am 6

only haitians can rebuild haiti

First of all, I have several pictures below I’d love to share with you from my recent trip to Haiti. It’s surreal to me that a week ago, I was in Haiti – hosted by the good folks at World Concern. The primary reason was to assess the work that they’ve done and grasp a glimpse of the strategy ahead – for them and other organizations. Consider partnering with us via our Haiti Relief and Rebuild Fund.

There really is much to share but I just don’t have the bandwidth so I’ll just share couple brief reflections: Read the rest of this entry »

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Saturday, March 6, 2010 • 10:55 am 6

5 reasons why i’m in haiti right now

As you know, I’m now in Port-au-Prince Haiti. You might be wondering, “Why are you in Haiti right now?” – especially since nearly two months have passed since the devastating Haiti quake on January 12, 2010.

There are 5 main reasons why I’m here: Read the rest of this entry »

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Wednesday, September 9, 2009 • 12:02 am 2

ODW: we’re hiring, launch date, and iPhone app


Thanks for your support, prayers, encouragement, and patience.  Whether we’re ready or not, we’ll be launching One Day’s Wages on October 20 - which happens to be my birthday. Minhee and I are working, saving, and doing all that we can to make our 2009 salary donation on that date and we’ll be asking people to join us by donating their respective one day’s wages.  More info and video to come.

But, can you keep all this in prayer? And knowing that people’s personal finances are tight but can you take a step of faith with us and prepare to make that donation as we launch One Day’s Wages?

Here’s three simple updates:

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Friday, May 15, 2009 • 12:01 am 35

introducing: One Day’s Wages

One Day's Wages: a movement to end extreme global poverty

After years of dreaming and conspiring, we’re very excited to share the name and vision of our poverty organization:  One Day’s Wages.

What is our vision?

One Day’s Wages is a grassroots organization and movement by which we hope to inspire millions of people to give their “One Day’s Wages” to fight and end extreme global poverty. 100% of your donations will go directly to fund grants, projects, & organizations that are doing amazing work amongst the poorest of the poor. Our purpose is to promote greater awareness about global extreme poverty, invite simple financial giving, and to provide sustainable relief and empowerment through strategic collaborations. Our vision is to change global issues of injustice affecting millions of people, regardless of race, culture, sex, age, or religion.

Here’s our two minute video intro & vision:

What is our commitment?

We are committing our one year’s salary ($68,000) to launch this movement and invite you to join us by donating one day’s wages. Other donations to help with the initial operations fund are needed and appreciated. Imagine what we can accomplish together! [Here's why we've gone public with our pledge.]

What can you do to join the movement? Read the rest of this entry »

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Saturday, May 2, 2009 • 12:06 am 11

we need your help to get to 1 million people

shoes

Let me begin by saying that generosity and fighting injustices & poverty should not be abdicated to celebrities, millionaires, rockstars, and A-listers.  We should all care. We have the capacity to make a difference. Don’t mistake what I’m saying:  I appreciate their voices but we can’t hide behind our excuses. I’m no celebrity and no Ashton Kutcher – who recently made more headline news for being the first person on Twitter to amass over 1 million “followers.” The last time I checked, he now has over 1.35 million followers.  Well, we’re not that far behind with our viral vision.

It’s not going to make any news but I am very excited that we have 647,888 people (and counting) in our Facebook Group for our Poverty Organization.  When we started this group on May 15, 2008, I thought we wouldn’t even come close to gathering 100,000 people which is why the group is entitled, “We will donate $1 for every person that joins this group to fight global poverty.”

As some of you know (and some have strongly criticized), we’ve gone public (for these reasons) with our pledge in hopes of starting this grassroots organization.  We are giving up this year’s salary + some additional funds (over the next few years) and donating a total of $100k for this vision.

But with nearly 700,000 people, will we be able to honor donating $1 for each person? Read the rest of this entry »

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009 • 2:04 pm 12

the power and privilege of opportunities

Please read this and watch the video below.  It’s about 7 minutes long but this excellent video [from my recent trip to South Africa w/ Peter Ahn] will give you a glimpse of what I’m talking about when I’m speaking of Privilege and Opportunities:

Over the years, I’ve been developing a deeper understanding of ‘privilege.’  God loves us such that He gave us free will and the amazing privilege to make choices and decisions.  Hopefully, choices to Love God and Love People.

You and I are privileged because we have the capacity to dream, create, and pursue opportunities.  While we have the tendency to wallow on occassions in our lackings, we are truly privileged.

But sadly, there are many without that human dignity – that capacity for decisions and opportunities; Or their circumstances are so dire that they have to choose one human essential for another.  An example would be a young child or teenager forsaking the privilege and necessity of education to be able to watch her young siblings because his or her parents have died or because they have to walk hours in order to fetch water for their families.

Our dream for the global poverty initiative is to work with people that are not giving handouts but creating opportunities. Opportunities for jobs, education, health, families, and on and on and on.  Hand outs can be dangerous as it creates a cycle of dependency but opportunities creates capacity for dignity, sustainability, and empowerment.

And that leads me to this question I am humbled by:

How are you and I – locally and globally – creating opportunities for others?

One of my friends, Peter Ahn, is one example of a broken misift and visionary who gets it.  He understands the power and impact of creating opportunities Read the rest of this entry »

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009 • 9:20 am 9

reflections on south africa

Couple weeks have passed since my return from South Africa and I’m still processing the gift of the vision and research trip.  While our plans on starting our Poverty Organization has hit snags and increasingly difficult in light of the financial recession, I’ve returned with an increasing commitment to the vision.  Before things get even busier, I wanted to share some reflections and pictures with you.

Let me begin by thanking Peter A. who hosted myself and several others from around the country on this trip. He also connected me to the anonymous benefactor that allowed me to travel to South Africa for the purposes of learning, connecting, and researching.  I also want to thank the staff of Zimele – the non-profit organization we spent most of our time with. Zimele in Zulu means, “to stand on one’s own two feet.”

I spend most of my time in an area called Kwazulu Natal.  Here’s some info about the area:

According to the Wikipedia, Kwazulu Natal “has the largest population (about 8.6 million) of any state in South Africa, with resources, such as water, coal, minerals and agriculture, along with timber, beef, dairy products, maize, poultry and fruit. Durban is the largest port in Africa. The province also has the most comprehensive tourist infrastructure in the country.

However, despite the presence of these resources, Kwazulu Natal like much of South Africa faces the growing problem of HIV/AIDS and poverty which disproportionally impacts the blacks in the rural communities due to the lingering effects of the now former Apartheid system. Read the rest of this entry »

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Saturday, December 6, 2008 • 2:15 am 16

an update on our global poverty initiative

from flickr

I hope that while this entry topic might not be as alluring as your top search engine topics like Britney Spears and Barack Obama, you’ll take a few minutes to read up the progress of our global poverty organization.  This has been one of the most humbling seasons of our life.  When we went public with our vision to give our year’s salary to start this poverty initiative, we had absolutely no idea about what was in store with the financial crisis and meltdown.  Our convictions have been tested but each time we think about how “bad” we have it, we’re reminded of the grave situation for the poorest of the poor – those affected by “extreme global poverty.”

Here’s 5 Updates on our Progress:

  • FACEBOOK.  On Friday, December 5, our Facebook Group – which can be accessed at http://fightglobalpoverty.com – surpassed 200,000 members.  It’s pretty amazing considering we started the group on May 15, 2008.  While there are no guarantees if folks will ultimately support our organization, it confirms our aspiration for our initiative in helping change the world:

Human Relationships + Technology + [Vision] = Movement Read the rest of this entry »

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Wednesday, April 9, 2008 • 2:10 am 60

loudly fighting poverty

Minhee and I are bracing ourselves for the long, hard, exciting and hopefully, fruitful work ahead as we attempt to lay some groundwork for the humanitarian organization we’re envisioning and its work with global poverty.  We are awaiting word and documents [any day] from the State of Washington and will then move forward with revealing the name, raising some initial funds, and other steps.  We may be stupid idealists but there is something within us that believe we can be catalysts to a global grassroots movement to help raise funds to fight global poverty.

But before we begin sharing and working in the weeks and months ahead, I wanted to take a post to answer the questions I have received from friends, acquaintances, church community folks, blog readers, and strangers that read an earlier post regarding the public announcement of our family’s decison to give up this year’s salary and additional funds to invest in starting this organization.

In some form or another, the question I want to address has been similar in content to this from a thoughtful blog reader:

…Why are you announcing to the world that you’re giving away your salary for the next year?  Why not quietly do it Read the rest of this entry »

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stuff, connect, info

one day’s wages | video

my tweets

  • Love wins in the end but in the meanwhile, it fights for & pursues the things that matter. Love isn't sentimental, it's fierce. It endures. || 11 hours ago
  • Dear Hong Kong: I'll be preaching this Sunday @TheVineHK at all 3 services: 9.15, 11.30, 4pm. Hope to see you there: thevine.org.hk || 1 day ago
  • "Justice is the grammar of things. Mercy is the poetry of things." - Frederick Buechner || 1 day ago
  • Proud to support the work of @thesoldproject & @raegoble as they fight human trafficking in Thailand with dignity: onedayswages.org/donate/org/sol… || 1 day ago
  • Don't underestimate the impact of our purchasing power. May our spending and investing be consistent with our values and convictions. || 2 days ago
  • How quickly people forget some of Abercrombie & Fitch's t-shirt designs from 2002 including these racist classics: http://t.co/vF5eGW0x80 || 2 days ago
  • The best way to make a statement against Abercrombie & Fitch isn't to exploit the homeless for a publicity stunt. Rather, just boycott AF. || 2 days ago
  • "My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ & I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it." - Brennan Manning || 2 days ago

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