The Join Together Society (JTS) consists of program offices in South Korea, US and Germany, and field offices in India, Philippines and North Korea. With a belief that working to help others is a way of enriching our own lives, all of us at JTS work without salary, ensuring that funds from donations are spent fully to benefit the marginalised community whom we are working with.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to bring hope, empowerment and self-reliance to the member of the underpriviledged community, to work with the community members themselves to bring not only the changes but also the direction of the changes.
OUR VALUES
We believe that the hungry should be able to eat, the sick to be able to be treated and children learn at appropriate times. These are the basic human rights that should be guranteed universally without any form of discrimination but are nevertheless denied to unacceptably large number of people especially children, women and marginalised groups. These are the people that we work with in order to bring changes to themselves and the world.
We believe that community development must be carried out with active contributions from the community members, with minimal outside intervention and fully volunteering their labours to do so. Our programs are based on the community ownership of the changes and all procurments and supplies, be it skilled manpower or construction materials are obtained locally in order to bring maximum benefits to the local economy.
We believe that all development work should be sustainable by the villagers and should consider the ecological implications to its environment. We use the traditional knowledge and skills to the maximum possible extent to ensure that develoment results can be maintained by the locals.
HISTORY
The history of JTS begins in India in 1993, first with the street dalit children without a school in the marginalized villages near Bodgaya. Through village participation and local donations, outdoor classes began and a schools building was soon erected. This program has now grown to a full school complex with 600 students and 17 preschools built in around adjacent villages.
Afterwards, JTS soon started responding to the needs from other parts of the world, expanding its programs to the DPRK (1997), Afghanistan (2002) and Philippines (2003). In addition to its development works, JTS provided emergency relief services to disasters struck areas, the most recent being the Pakistan earthquake in 2005, Java earthquake in 2006, South Asia Tsunami (India & Sri Lanka) in 2004, Iran Earthquake in 2003 and the flood of North Korea in 2006.
In Korea, JTS runs campaigns and programs for the elders and disabled as well as solidarity programs with national NGOs. Affiliated with Jungto Society, it has national chapters in 9 cities in Korea as well as overseas chapters in North Korea (Rasun), USA and Germany.