JOY ELLEN YOON — Choosing to Give Thanks

Working in North Korea is not efficient. It takes years for an organization to get established in the country and even more time to become effective. Perseverance and a long-term perspective are a must if you expect to see any kind of project succeed. For IGNIS Community, it has been ten years since our medical work started in Pyongyang. Still we have yet to officially open our specialty hospital known as the Pyongyang Spine Rehabilitation Center (PYSRC).

However, more than work, I would say that daily life in North Korea was a challenge. Our family had to learn how to live within a socialist and communist society, which was extremely restrictive and isolating. Living in North Korea meant that our family had fewer options.

Our children had some extra-curricular activities they could participate in but their choices were limited. Homeschooling meant that their education was primarily on my shoulders. I did not have any homeschooling co-ops or other homeschooling families to share the burden of educating my children with.

And similar to other developing nations, I had to learn how to do laundry by hand, sift our rice for rocks, and butcher my own meat. Cooking a simple meal took hours as everything had to be prepared from scratch.

But these challenges taught our family the value of gratitude. Simple things made us thankful and happy. We appreciated the small things in life like indoor plumbing, hot water, and running electricity. Just to have an oven to bake bread, be able to walk within our compound and appreciate the ornamented flowers and chirping birds gave us glimpses of joy.

Since the global pandemic shut North Korea’s borders, for the past three years IGNIS Community’s humanitarian work has faced extreme limitations. Beginning in January of 2020, no humanitarian workers have been allowed into the country, and no North Koreans have been allowed to travel abroad.

Training of doctors in Pediatric Rehabilitation has come to a halt, and IGNIS Community has had to rely upon local counterparts for the verification of IGNIS’s medical and humanitarian donations. Despite these challenges, though, IGNIS Community chooses to give thanks for the ways we are still able to engage in both North Korea and the Korean Peninsula, as a whole.

Despite select few shipments being able to enter North Korea, in June of 2020 one of those shipments was for IGNIS Community’s Pyongyang Spine Rehabilitation Center (PYSRC). Three 40-ft containers of rehabilitation and medical equipment arrived in Pyongyang to treat children with developmental disabilities, particularly for children with cerebral palsy. With this and other support, the construction of the PYSRC was completed, even in the midst of a world-wide pandemic. We are currently only waiting for the arrival of one more shipment before the rehabilitation center can officially open and function at full capacity.

Border closings placed a huge strain upon the North Korean economy. To help with food security, IGNIS Community has supplemented the diet of children five years-old and younger throughout the northeast region. Through the Jubilee Project, IGNIS Community’s support for preschool-aged children expanded from providing food for 1,000 children to 3,000 children every month. Miraculously, this project continues today and provides both rice and much-needed heating for nursery and kindergarten children, which is essential life-saving aid as cold winter months approach this year.

And as we wait for the day when the borders to North Korea re-open, IGNIS Community remains active in supporting families raising children with disabilities on the Korean Peninsula. Through both in-person and virtual trainings, parents in South Korea are being trained in the Neuro-Developmental Approach.

A new YouTube Channel “Discovering Joy” launched in April 2021 to empower Korean parents raising children with developmental disabilities. Already fifty episodes have aired instructing parents on the importance of neurodevelopment, sensory processing, and multi-sensory instruction.

In March of 2022, the first in-person training of parents began. A cohort of parents received sixteen hours of direct instruction as their children were each individually assessed. Specific neurodevelopmental activities were recommended for each child, and parents began to observe significant progress in their child’s development.

Starting in July of this year, a second cohort of parents are now being trained through both virtual and in-person seminars led by the first cohort of parents. As a result, children with autism, Down Syndrome, and other developmental delays are experiencing positive changes in their daily lives. In addition, all the curriculum and materials developed through these trainings are being designed to eventually be used in North Korea once the pandemic ends.

COVID-19 has indeed changed our lives forever. This is particularly true for organizations working in North Korea. But our outlook and perspective make a difference. Are we going to look at the glass being half full or half empty?

For IGNIS Community, we choose to count our blessings. When many other medical and humanitarian organizations have had to leave country, we continue to actively engage with both North and South Koreans. We are genuinely thankful for the ways we continue to work in North Korea, regardless of the limitations. This sense of gratitude is carrying us through to make a difference even in the most challenging of times.