The first inspiring story involves a 9-year-old foster child being supported under the LFNKR education sponsorship program who has reached South Korea and been restored to his mother. This means that the child has graduated from our sponsorship program.
Originally, the boy and his mother escaped from North Korea into China, where she married a Chinese-Korean man. But in November 2004, the mother suddenly disappeared, leaving the boy behind.
Since the husband had no interested in him, the boy became a Kotchebi (street child). Fortunately, local staff working at one of LFNKR’s shelters discovered the boy and placed him under the protection of its education sponsorship program. Then recently, the boy’s mother contacted us. She revealed that she had been captured and repatriated to North Korea, but then managed to escape again.
She eventually made it safely to South Korea, and now that she was resettled, she desperately wanted to be reunited with her son. In April 2010, the boy was successfully moved out of China and into South Korea, where he rejoined his mother.
In the second case, former foster child, Oh Yong Jun, recently called his foster mother (one of the LFNKR foster parents living in Japan). He had chosen to go to England to restart his new life after graduating from LFNKR’s education sponsorship program.
Yong Jun called to tell her that he had finally received the visa that allows him to live in England. He also expressed a desire to visit Japan again in the near future. He has been studying English very hard since he will be resettling in a country where the language and culture are completely different.
LFNKR members are all delighted for this courageous boy and admire his sense of purpose. We all look forward to meeting him again. He is
an inspiring example of how people will grow and their talents develop once opportunities open up to them.
Oh Yong Jun was born in 1988 in a coal-mining town in North Hamgyong province. When both his parents starved to death, he made his way alone to China in search of food. There he was found by a local LFNKR aid worker, and he began classes in Yanbian under our group’s education sponsorship program.
