"the poor should be fed; the sick should be treated; and children should be educated."

Venerable Pomnyun Sunim takes the lead in ministering to the poor, sick, and illiterate in the global village regardless of ethnicity, religion, race, or ideology based on his philanthropic belief that ""the poor should be fed; the sick should be treated; and children should be educated.'

In 1991, when Venerable Pomnyun Sunim saw young women begging for money to buy milk for their babies in Calcutta, India, and about 200 children begging in the street instead of being in school in Dungeshwari, India, he established the Join Together Society (JTS), an international relief organization to engage in relief aid activities around the world in belief that helping such people is to keep the conscience of mankind.

In Dungeshwari, a remote area in India, the majority of the 12,000 residents subsisted by begging in 16 villages around the hills. The area was the world's poorest region: the residents were illiterate as there was no school; and diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis were endemic. In 1993, Venerable Pomnyun Sunim built a school called Sujata Academy and Jeevaka Hospital in Dungeshwari. Ever since then, indigent children have been offered opportunities to learn and campaigns to prevent infectious diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis have been actively waged. In addition, village development projects have been carried out for 18 years including construction of roads to improve the residents' living conditions, and supply of water for drinking and agriculture. Today, about 1,200 children in 16 kindergartens, about 800 children in three elementary schools, and about 150 middle school students study for free.

Learning about the millions of North Koreans on the verge of starvation, Venerable Pomnyun Sunim started to provide food aid for North Korea in 1996. Since then, he has supplied nutritional food to about 10,000 preschool children in Rajin and Sonbong. He has also provided food supplements, daily necessities, and stationery for about 12,000 children and elderly living in orphanages, nursing homes, and facilities for the disabled across North Korea.

Upon the request of an archbishop of the Philippines to provide support for settlement of peace in Mindanao, an island of the Philippines, starting 2003, Venerable Pomnyun Sunim has engaged in a variety of programs: educational support including construction of schools and supply of stationery in about 40 areas, development of villages, preservation of traditional culture, and building a peace network for indigenous minorities in remote areas, Muslims in trouble spots, and the disabled.

With the earnest hope of 'resolving Asians' poverty by Asian hands,' Venerable Pomnyun Sunim has delivered a wide range of relief assistance in remote underprivileged or disaster areas beyond India, North Korea, and the Philippines. His efforts include construction of schools in Rattanakiri, a remote province in Cambodia; construction of houses in areas hit by an earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia; building kindergartens in tsunami-hit areas of Sri Lanka; and construction of schools in areas affected by an earthquake in Haiti. He has also provided emergency relief aid for a number of areas in need throughout the world including areas hit by earthquakes in Pakistan, areas stricken by floods in Myanmar, and refugee camps in Afghanistan. He also plans to further extend his development and relief programs to 15 Asian countries with many impoverished areas.