We are the Main Character in our lives.

< Report on visiting Miral School in China >  

Miral Welfare Foundation has visited Yanji Miral School, which is project supporting persons with disabilities in China from November 3rd to 4th. Since 2012, we implemented special education to 13 children with disabilities within association of local social welfare organization, "House of Love." And we are collaborating with the school by sending two special education teachers, building the educational infrastructure and supporting operation cost.

Yanji, located in the border of China and North Korea, is an area where there are 40% of Koreans in China and the center of their culture. Koreans settled to this area to seek place to live since 19th century to Japan colonization. It is easy to hear and see Korean in the city as a part of protecting ethnic minority culture policy.

When looking around North West direction from Yanji Airport, you can find beautifully built red brick building. That building is where "House of Love" is located. "House of Love" is a social welfare organization which provide services to orphans. Hakwon Kim and his wife, Hayeon Ahn started living with orphans from 1992 in Yanji, China. In 2013, they became "mom and dad" to 62 children whom are infants to 20s.

In "House of Love", there are 15 children with disabilities. There are many heart-breaking stories to each of them, such as being abandoned as soon as one was born due to financial difficulties and so on. In addition, there are only one special education school, which can accommodate about 80 persons, even though approximately 7% of four hundred thousand are persons with disabilities.

Last year May, we sent two special educator volunteers who are Jiyeon Lee and Jinhee Jung to "House of Love."Since opening school, Miral School is implementing special education to 13 student with disabilities. There are to two classes. The first is Miral 1, consisted of seven students age from 5 to 13, and Miral2, consisted of six students from age 14 to 27. Before they attended school, their life style was simple such as watching TV and eating and sleeping. There was no event to laugh or to be sad. Employees working at "House of Love" also assumed that this is normal or they didn`t even recognize that there was children with disabilities.

Since meeting Miral, their life changed to something. They grew up as they have regular school days. This month, they got to ride taxi as a part of training social adaptive skills. As this was their first time in their life, 12 year old child got on taxi forgetting that he has dirt on his shoes. Taxi driver got angry due to dirty taxi but as he used what he learned from his teacher. When he said "I... am ... sorry", taxi driver wasn`t angry any more and showed him kind smile. There also was one child who was so timid that he used to cry a lot or couldn`t even look into other`s eye. But now he is the most active student in Miral 1.

As time passed, Yanji Miral School students became to help the others who are in need, even though they have different disabilities. In Miral 2, Shinae needed someone to assist her when walking or moving due to her 1st grade Cerebral Palsy. Thanks to Chunho`s help, she can go anywhere she wants to go with wheelchair and also attend classes.

The short-term volunteers who helped cafeteria and shuttle bus, got to recognize that there are Miral School students. Nowadays, those children became cheerful and active. We look forward to see the children becoming "the main character in their life." We would like to thank donators of Miral for interests and presenting a new life to 13 children with disabilities.