Good Neighbors (organization)

Good Neighbors is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 in South Korea. It is a global NGO specializing in children's rights and is active in 47 countries worldwide.

History
Good Neighbors was founded by Il-ha YI and seven founding members on March 28, 1991, as the Korea Neighborhood Love Association under the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The international relief and development project was started with Bangladesh's poor relief in 1992, Somalia in 1993, and Rwanda's refugee relief activities in 1994. In March 1996, the corporation was disbanded and a social welfare corporation was established, and the first private organization to open a child abuse counseling center nationwide and began professional intervention in children affected by abuse. In 1996, Korea's first NGO was granted comprehensive consultation status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council(UNECOSOC). On August 1, 2002, the organization was renamed Good Neighbors, and in August 2003, Good Neighbors International was registered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since then, emergency relief has been provided for disasters such as the Sichuan earthquake, Haiti earthquake, East Japan earthquake, and Nepal earthquake. In 2007, he was awarded the Millennium Development Goals Award (MDGs Award), organized by the United Nations and the International Union of Labor and Management Organizations, for his contribution to universal primary education.

Activities
Good Neighbors is currently carrying out international development projects in South Korea, North Korea, and 39 countries abroad. And eight developed countries, including the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and Taiwan, are expanding their fundraising activities and children's rights advocacy activities. Based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child(UN CRC) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals(UN SDGs), it targets 5.8 million children and local residents in areas such as children's rights protection, education, health, drinking water sanitation, income increase, union activities, networks, disaster relief and humanitarian support, social economic projects, and sustainable environments.

Criticism
Good Neighbors has been accused of using volunteer work as a disguise for missionary work, a charge that the organization has denied. In 2015, Good Neighbors was one of 26 charities found to have low transparency in its financial reporting, in a review of 45 large charities operating in South Korea by the media outlet Hankook Ilbo on the eve of tax law changes designed to force greater transparency in how charitable organizations spend their funds. In 2017, Good Neighbors received the 100% score in a similar transparency evaluation conducted by Yonhap News. Additionally, Good Neighbors has been criticized for using poverty porn to solicit donations.

Honorary ambassador
Celebrities in South Korea: Choi Soo-jong, Kim Jong-seok, Byun Jung-soo, Lee Se-joon, Jo Su-ah, Soriel Jang Hyuk-jae, Kim Byung-man, Kim Hyun-joo, Kim Soo-jin, Seo Young-hee, Go A-ra, Jeon Jeong-hyang, Jin Se-yeon, Kim Ji-woo, Rayman Kim, Ham Chun-ho, and Lee Jung-min are active as ambassadors.