Rice from Heaven is a true story about compassion and bravery as a
young girl and her community in South Korea help deliver rice via
balloons to the starving and oppressed people in North Korea.
"We reach a place where mountains become a wall. A wall so high, no one
dares to climb. Beyond that wall and across the sea live children just
like me, except they do not have food to eat."
Yoori lives in South Korea and doesn't know what North Korea is like,
but her father (Appa) does. Appa grew up in North Korea, where he did
not have enough food to eat. Starving, he fled to South Korea in search
of a better life. Yoori doesn't know how she can help as she's only a
little "grain of rice" herself, but Appa tells her that they can
secretly help the starving people by sending special balloons that carry
rice over the border.
Villagers glare and grumble, and children protest feeding the enemy, but
Yoori doesn't back down. She has to help. People right over the border
don't have food. No rice, and no green fields.
With renewed spirit, volunteers gather in groups, fill the balloons with
air, and tie the Styrofoam containers filled with rice to the tails of
the balloons. With a little push, the balloons soar up and over the
border, carrying rice in the darkness of the night over to North Korea.