Rearing healthy and sound children is an issue that has a bearing on the prospect
and the future of all countries.
Especially, the period of nursery and kindergarten covers the most important
part of human development, and thus it is highly important to pay attention to
nutrition and health management of those in this age group.
November 20 is Children’s Health Day.
On the occasion of the day, childcare in the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea is introduced here.
The DPRK has established a socialist system of nursing and upbringing of
children, in which all the pre-school children are enrolled and reared in nurseries
and kindergartens at state and social expense.
This system is legally guaranteed by law.
The Law of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on the Nursing and
Upbringing of Children was adopted in April 1976 and amended and supplemented
in March 1999. Comprised of sixty articles in six chapters, the law
comprehensively stipulates numerous benefits for children, including construction
of nurseries and kindergartens, supply of grains and other foodstuffs, clothes,
footwear and other daily necessities, special protection of mothers with children,
nutritional and medical service for children, treatment of nursery and kindergarten
teachers, organization and operation of nurseries, kindergartens, baby homes and
orphanages, and guidance, management and supply systems for them, etc.
Every city and county has a foodstuff supply station which is in charge of the
provision for the local nurseries and kindergartens with such nutritional foods as
milk, meat, eggs, fruits, vegetables and confectionery.
In recent years baby homes and orphanages in the capital city and the seats of
provinces have been renovated, and the orphans across the country are provided
with quality nutritional foods on a special and preferential basis.
Worthy of special note is that the Third Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central
Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea held in June this year established
it as the Party’s childcare policy to supply all the children across the country with
nutritional foods including dairy products at state expense.
It is an inherent part of wishes of parents to feed and dress their children well
and take pride in them in front of others. A Korean saying goes that it takes
fifty thousand man-days to raise a child, implying how demanding and challenging
it is. Worse still, it is by no means easy for the country to adopt such a resolution in
the light of the fact that the country is experiencing quite a hard time due to the
prolonged sanctions by the hostile forces coupled by the global health crisis.
It is a courageous decision that can be made only by General Secretary
Kim Jong Un of the WPK, who regards it as a source of happiness, not a challenge,
to spare nothing for the children across the country, saying that it is a blessing for
the WPK to be in charge of raising millions of them. Also, it is a moving story
unique to the WPK that cherishes as an ennobling ideal the spirit of making selfless,
devoted efforts for the good of the people.
Thanks to the benevolent care of the head of state and ruling party, the DPRK is
well advanced in its pursuit of good health of the children.
One of the examples is the activities of the Korean Association for Supporting
the Children founded in 2013 with a mission to assist the government in this
regard.
The association trains the professionals in the fields of children’s healthcare,
nourishment, intellectual development and day care, and plays the role of a
communications office and a channel of assistance for children. Outreach programs
are briskly underway and hygienic information work is being energetically
undertaken among the local people so as to lower the children’s morbidity rate and
rate of missing in inoculation. Its production bases make a variety of traditional
medicines including anti-virus liquid medicine made from burdock, contributing to
the treatment of pediatric diseases. It is also engaged in the major evaluation of
medical supplies and appliances needed for the children’s healthcare at the
nurseries, kindergartens and pediatric hospitals designated as targets of assistance
and reinforcing the trial production processes of nutritional foods for the children.
It also hosts photo exhibitions and forums on child healthcare on the occasion of
the International Children’s Day, World Health Day and Children’s Health Day,
fostering the climate of social support for the children.
