Shortly ago, we visited the Korea Rehabilitation Centre for Children with Disabilities.
On arriving there, we could find that the officials and employees of the centre had been quite busy preparing colourful art performances and amusement games of disabled children, working out holiday menus and making other preparations for celebrating the International Children’s Day.
While walking round different parts of the centre and meeting its officials and employees, and disabled children, we could notice that something had been changed since March ten years before when the inauguration of the centre was broadcast through newspapers, TV and radio under the name of the Korean Children’s Rehabilitation Centre for Disabled Children.
Ten years have passed since then. The change in the “age” of the centre was the first impression we received.
Song Hyang Chun, director of the centre, and Mun Myong Jin, its official, are officials who had been working in the centre since its inauguration.
They said with a laugh that it seemed like only yesterday that they are working in the centre, but now they had grown older by ten years.
Their ages changed along with the “age” of the centre.
The appearance of the centre also changed beyond recognition during the period.
Indoor playing rooms, outdoor playground and many other things had been newly laid out. And the front gate and windows of the buildings were reshaped and burnished.
Then, what was it that remained unchanged?
It was the sincere devotion of the officials and employees of the centre for the children with disabilities.
The employees are unanimous in saying, “The director is, indeed, an official who devotes herself to the disabled children.”
Indeed, she had worked hard to improve the appearance of the centre by leading a small number of women employees.
She frequently went to institutions for upbringing and educating children to find out and recover children with disabilities early. She made successes in research into early detection of developmental disorders, for which she received a master’s degree.
The nurses, doctors and teachers of the centre also devoted sincerity to the children with disabilities.
Though women with no experience of construction, they carried away rubbish and spruced up the roof hundreds of square metres wide.
Officials, nurses and teachers of the centre thought over and over again to find out an educational method for intellectual development of the disabled children who were hard to share their feelings with their parents, and spent more nights at the centre than their houses to take care of the children who lost their faculty of sensation due to the cerebral palsy.
Staying with the children with disabilities almost all year round, they dedicated themselves to them, regarding them as their own children.
When talking about what remains unchanged, they say that it is the bright looks of the children.
As they devote themselves to the children without seeking any reward and appreciation, the happiest moment for them is when they see the children enjoying a cheerful life.
There is no shade where the sunlight reaches.
Then, what sunlight is it that is reflected on the clear eyes of the children?
The officials and employees of the centre occasionally ponder this question.
Whenever they see the children of ordinary workers getting recuperative treatment free from worries at the centre, they recollect with deep emotion the warm affection of the respected Comrade
Kim Jong Un for younger generations.
Director Song Hyang Chun said that he saw to it that the Korea Rehabilitation Centre for Children with Disabilities was established, and has taken benevolent measures several times for the work of the centre.
A nurse of the centre said, “It is really a challenging job to look after children with disabilities. But whenever I become feeble-minded, I brace myself thinking of the respected Comrade
Kim Jong Un who is concerned more about them than anyone else.”
Many foreigners and overseas Koreans have visited the centre in the past.
They all were deeply impressed to see bright looks of the children.
Officials and other employees of the centre say that the sunlight that is reflected on the bright looks of the children is the love for the children of the respected Comrade
Kim Jong Un.
The place filled with warm sunlight all the time--this was what we kept in our mind when we left the centre.
