Category Archives: Relief Work
Sending in the Choco Pies
Help Send Choco Pies of Love for Valentine’s Day
Choco pies have become the most famous snacks among North Korean workers in Kaeson Industrial Park (see details below), but outside this one limited area, the rest of North Korea has little idea of the everyday luxuries available to the rest of the world.
LFNKR Foster Education Scholarships Up
Foster Parent Program
In early August of 2011, scholarships for the new fiscal year were awarded to our foster education children. And we were able to add one new child to those receiving scholarships for a total of 20 recipients. This latest child is a boy born in 2004. Like so many so-called “shadow children,” his mother is a North Korean defector, and his father is ethnic Han Chinese.
LFNKR Annual Report Released for 2011
Introduction
The new currency system initiated in November 2009 by North Korea has led to serious confusion in the country’s economy. As a result, poverty continues to deepen. Around November 2010, even in Pyongyang where relatively privileged people live, the supply of food has stopped. The currency revaluation slashed the currency to 1/100 of its previous value, but by March 2011, the price of rice per kilogram had risen to 1800 NKW. This is the same price it was before currency reform, and it indicates a complete failure of the government’s plan to suck money from its citizens.
Toothbrushes to Tsunami Victims
A North Korean defector couple have donated 20,000 toothbrushes to victims of the recent tsunami. When the Great Earthquake struck Eastern Japan on March 11, I was in an office in Osaka City. An office worker at a nearby desk suddenly cried, “Earthquake!” Another man who was there went outside to listen to his car radio. He shouted, “There’s a 6-meter tsunami warning!”
Nonstop television broadcasts showed unimaginable misery. The people who lived in the affected area must have grown up hearing about the dangers of tsunamis from the elderly… but I could not put those thoughts into words. Then, even after the tsunami seemed to be over, it struck a second time, and a third.
Patients Dying from Lack of Basic Surgical Supplies in NK
Surgery Done without Anesthesia
A local LFNKR staff member in North Korea in charge of medical support spoke with a Japanese surgeon recently. The surgeon said that even if a doctor is very good, there was no way to perform operations successfully without postoperative management or the required sterile instruments, disinfecting, antibiotics and transfusions. It was even stated that antibiotics might not be necessary after operations if wounds were uninfected, because these days operations are done in clean environments.
Winter Relief for the Starving
We Can Help Only a Handful
Although thousands upon thousands in North Korea were without food, warm clothes or adequate shelter this past winter, we were able to provide relief for only a few hundred. By November of each year, our organization must secure the money needed to send shipments of winter clothing, medical kits and rice to some of the most needy people in North Korea through our local underground network. Thus, we are starting early to build up funds for next winter. According to some observers, conditions are likely to be even worse by then.
Paper Cranes for Japan’s Restoration
Empowering Our Youth
Ordinarily we don’t mention specific charities or fund raising groups, but this initiative involving students is so unique and delightful that we decided you’d probably want to hear about it. The 100,000 Paper Cranes to Rebuild Japan project was brought to our attention by a friend in the US.