On October 2nd, Ignis Community began training for the 5th cohort of mothers raising children with special needs. Ten new families have joined another eleven returning families for this 5th cohort making a total of 21 families participating in the program.

We began the training by introducing ourselves. Two of the mothers broke out into tears recounting their child’s story. One child was diagnosed with cancer at about one year’s old. At 15 months, he underwent chemotherapy to treat the cancer, but as a result, his heart suddenly stopped beating for 15 minutes. Due to oxygen deprivation, he is now severely disabled with quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

Another mother came with her forty-five-year-old daughter who has mental disability. In the past, the family struggled to make ends meet, and so they sent their daughter at the age of seven to a home for the disabled. However, in the 1980’s Korea’s social system for the disabled was underdeveloped, and the home barely serviced her basic needs. She was neglected in the system for many years. Once the family was financially capable of caring for her, they brought her back home, but more than twenty years had already passed. Her mother lamented the many years she lost with her daughter.

What was especially special about this training was that three of the mothers who had already received screening training assisted throughout the program. When it came time to practice neurodevelopmental activities, instead of us going around and explaining everything, these assistants took charge of their small group and explained in precise detail from their own experiences better than we ever could.

These mothers are truly developing their own leadership and expertise. Last month on September 4th, six mothers were trained in screening and leadership in the Neurodevelopmental Approach. Now they are equipped to evaluate children with developmental disabilities and train other parents in how to implement neurodevelopmental activities. These women are vessels of hope. They are the ones who truly make this program work. They are present every week working with the families, encouraging and guiding the parents, and struggling together with each family’s child.

Children with developmental disabilities require extra care and intervention. It is a slow process developing the ability to receive sensory information, process that information, and eventually use the information to produce the desired skills and outcome. It takes months if not years of daily doing activities and exercises in this journey towards wholeness and healing.

When mothers attempt to do this program on their own, they often fail. Faithful dedication and constant discipline are required for mothers to witness a breakthrough in their children. This is why community is not only important but essential in this process. When mothers encourage one another and support each other along the journey, they are able to consistently implement the activities that help their children. And in the end, they see results and begin experiencing their child move from one developmental milestone to the next.

As we anticipate North Korea’s borders to reopen in the next year, Ignis Community plans to implement this same approach inside the DPRK. As North Korea’s society is already structured into grouped communities, organizing mothers into a support network will be a strategic way to empower families raising children with disabilities. In this way, eventually the skills and expertise Ignis is teaching these mothers will be used to not only help other families within their immediate surroundings but also to expand this outreach throughout the entire Korean Peninsula.