How Ignis Got Started
Initially, Ignis Community was introduced into North Korea through our predecessor with a charitable organization called GNM. GNM operated several clinics in Rajin, DPRK, including a dental clinic, a women’s health clinic, and a traditional Korean medicine clinic. It was through this traditional Korean medicine clinic that my husband, Stephen, began treating patients in North Korea. We were told that foreign doctors usually do not have permission to treat common North Korean citizens. So, we actually did not have any expectations for Stephen to be able to do so. However, soon after he arrived, he was assigned about ten doctors to learn from him as he treated patients from 7:30 am to about 9 pm every day.
This experience and exposure to North Korea through medical humanitarian work with our predecessor opened up a variety of opportunities. We began expanding upon our predecessor’s own work to renovate a surgical room in the Sonbong City Hospital just 20 minutes drive away. The surgical room was in desperate need of updating. Lighting was poor. Medical equipment was over-used and out-dated. So with the help of a cardiac surgeon working in China, we were able to properly restore the surgical room to pristine condition.
As our humanitarian work continued to grow, Ignis Community officially formed a non-profit organization in the DPRK in 2008. We eventually expanded our humanitarian aid to include providing food, medicine, and educational supplies to almost 1,000 children and 200 teachers and medical professionals throughout the rural region of Rason. Ignis’ humanitarian success from renovating one surgical room in the Sonbong City hospital led to more opportunities of renovating other rural clinics in remote fishing and farming villages in North Korea.
Children at a daycare facility in the NE Region of the DPRK
Beyond the medical sector, Ignis was also given the opportunity to build a kindergarten in a satellite village on the outskirts of the city of Sonbong called Baek-Hak. The village was split in the middle by a mountain stream. Local children had to cross the stream, either through the water or over the ice in the winter, to get to kindergarten every morning. Even the existing kindergarten, though, was in need of heating in the winter and renovation. The walls had cracked from the erosion of wind and rain allowing cold drafts to sweep through the building and made the facility unfit for young children.
One of our longest-standing relationships in the DPRK is with this first kindergarten project. A local middle-aged woman was the administrator of the first two childcare centers in the village of Baek-Hak. Several years ago, she approached Stephen requesting some medicine for her husband. She said that he was dying from liver disease. But, by the time Stephen was able to return from China with the appropriate medication, her husband had already passed away. As she reached out with her hand to receive the medicine from him, she broke down in tears. Despite the fact that her husband had already passed on, she was emotionally touched and comforted by Stephen’s gift. Just something simple as oral medication can drastically save the lives of people in the DPRK. Although in this instance we were too late, we have learned that a request for medicine is something we should never turn down.
In particular, young children are some of the most vulnerable in society. Proper nutrition and medical care are essential for children to develop healthy. Without proper care, children in the DPRK can be stunted in growth for life. As a result, Ignis Community began focusing on providing food, clothing, and educational support to preschool-aged children in the Rason area.
We renovated the Baek-Hak kindergarten and then began building a brand-new facility on the other side of the stream that split the village in half. Children no longer had to precariously walk across the ice to get to school in the winter. Ignis’ humanitarian work then continued to expand to include daycare centers and kindergartens throughout remote farming and fishing villages in the Rason region. Currently Ignis’ humanitarian work focuses on providing aid to children throughout the DPRK and includes supporting rural clinics, kindergartens, daycare centers, orphanages, children with disabilities, and disaster-affected areas.