As we just entered this new year, I cannot help wonder what 2021 will hold. Never in a million years would I have expected 2020 to be the year that it was. It was as if time stood still. Travel plans were cancelled. Large gatherings and events postponed. Even the future of the Olympic Games hung in the balance as the worldwide pandemic altered life as we knew it.

But now that vaccines for COVID-19 are starting to be produced and distributed in countries such as China, the United Kingdom, and the United States, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Will life return to normal, I wonder? Or has the pandemic altered our lives  forever? Will we have to adjust to a new normal? Only the effectiveness of the vaccine and time will tell.

For our humanitarian work in the DPRK, the global pandemic has resulted in extreme limitations. National borders closed to prevent the spread of the disease, which resulted in no person being able to either leave or enter the country. Outbreaks in China prevented timely humanitarian aid shipments from reaching the most vulnerable in North Korea. So, in many ways, over a decade of working and living inside the country has come to a stand-still.

Yet despite these restrictions, our non-profit organization, Ignis Community, has been able forge on in the most impossible of circumstances. A large medical shipment including three 40-ft containers arrived in Pyongyang on June 14, 2020. In addition, this winter we have raised over $50,000 USD or close to 4,000 pairs of snow boots and seasonal shoes for children throughout rural provinces in North Korea. These donations will be delivered this year to orphanages and remote farming and fishing villages throughout the country through a local charitable organization known as the Korea Education Fund (KEF). Despite the limitations, Ignis Community has continued in both small and large ways to maintain humanitarian support to the common people of North Korea.

Most definitely, we are eager to return to our full-time medical work of treating pediatric patients with developmental disabilities in the Pyongyang Spine Rehabilitation Center. But, this is not the first time we have had to wait things out and just see how it will all turn out.

The abbreviation “NK” for North Korea is also affectionately known as the acronym for “Never Know” amongst the humanitarian organizations working in the DPRK. There have been multiple times our projects have been put on halt. Yet each time, patience and determination have proved worth it in the end.

One particular instance was in regards to the construction of the Rehabilitation Center in Pyongyang. Ignis Community began construction of this facility for a brand-new medical specialty in North Korea in March 2013. Non-surgical spine treatment through various physical therapy techniques and modalities was birthed through the Rehabilitation Department at the Pyongyang Medical School Hospital.

When we first began the project, we focused on providing spine care to patients of all ages. However, through the life of one little girl, known as Bok-Shin, another medical specialty was born for children with developmental disabilities, including children with cerebral palsy and autism. As a result, we revised the blueprints and construction plans for our center to accommodate rehabilitation medicine for pediatric patients, particularly in-patients coming from various provinces, as well as out-patients from the city. These changes required us to obtain approval from the highest levels in government.

Therefore, although construction for the Rehabilitation Center had already begun, we were forced to stop building the center until official approval was signed, stamped, and dated. This was no simple task as the paperwork needed to climb up the bureaucratic ladder of every department until it reached the very top.

A year went by. Two years, and then almost three years. Our project was suspended in mid-air. Yet, despite the halt in construction, it was during this time that we began actual treatment of children with disabilities from all around the country. Textbooks were translated, a cohort of doctors trained, and a medical program was initiated as part of the post-graduate specialties for graduating medical students from the Pyongyang Medical School. Then finally in the fall of 2015, Ignis Community finally received approval to complete the construction of the Pyongyang Spine Rehabilitation Center.

Perhaps if Ignis Community was able to build the Rehabilitation Center immediately, we may not have been medically or professionally ready to effectively run it. It was during the almost three years that construction was halted that our medical team grew and developed two brand-new specialties for the medical system in the DPRK: Non-surgical Spine Treatment and Pediatric Rehabilitation for Developmental Disabilities.

Likewise, it may seem like 2020 has been a glitch in time. But we have to look beyond what is obvious and see greater things at work behind the scenes. I do not know exactly what 2021 will yield for our humanitarian work in North Korea. However, I do believe that no time, no effort, and no moment has been wasted. Despite the odds, I trust that the work being done today is laying foundations for even greater things to come this year, as well as in the many more years yet ahead.