First Steps is a Vancouver-based Christian development organization whose primary purpose is preventing childhood malnutrition in North Korea through programs that provide essential nutrients to young children.
Boy smiles as he drinks soymilk at Wonsan orphanage.
Photo: Frank Daller
North Korea, with a population of about 23 million, has suffered acute food shortages for more than a decade. United Nations and World Food Programme reports show that between two and three million North Korean children (infants to age five) consistently fail to receive the nutrients vital to their physical and mental development. The result has seen the emergence of almost an entire generation of youngsters whose growth is stunted.
First Steps’ founding director Susan Ritchie was deeply moved by the plight of the children she saw as the interpreter for a Canadian government delegation that travelled to North Korea in 2000. She was particularly affected at a home where a nursing mother didn’t have supplemental nutrition to feed her malnourished twins(below). Susan vowed to herself to do something, and on her return to Vancouver she and other volunteers set about launching First Steps. Susan’s fluency in Korean and understanding of Korean culture has been vital to gaining local trust and co-operation in First Steps’ mission.
First Steps sent its first food aid – a container of Pablum – to a hospital and orphanage in Kangdong County in 2002. Since then, our focus has shifted to supplying specially-designed VitaCow and VitaGoat machines to food-production centres in Nampo, Wonsan and Hyongjesan, as well as several co-operative farms. Operating like over-sized pressure cookers, these highly energy-efficient machines process soybeans into protein-rich soymilk. Each machine can produce enough soymilk daily to meet the growth requirements of up to 2,000 young children.
Since pursuing this program, First Steps has raised the funds to purchase and deliver 37 electrically-powered VitaCows. We have also installed 36 fire-powered VitaGoats in rural areas where electricity is unreliable or non-existent. We buy raw soybeans and send them in to maintain supplies at many sites where our North Korean partners have been unable to provide their own. Altogether, we’re currently providing a daily serving of soymilk to more than 80,000 children in schools and orphanages (see Our Programs/VitaGoat).
In 2007, First Steps initiated distribution of the acclaimed micro-nutrient Sprinkles to 72,000 receipients, including 35,000 infants and toddlers, as well as to 37,000 pregnant and nursing women in co-operation with North Korea’s Institute of Child Nutrition (see Our Programs/Sprinkles).
A two-year Sprinkles efficacy study conducted in conjunction with ICN has passed the half-way mark (April ‘08). Preliminary results have indicated very positive benefits and our hope is that Sprinkles will be adopted on a national scale.
Our partners in North Korea, at all levels, are enthusiastic about our programs because of their inclusiveness and for the responsibility they have been given.
First Steps’ teams regularly monitor our activities and we also work in close co-operation with other international aid groups, as well as North Korean officials. We are a registered Canadian charity and tax receipts are issued to all donors.
Since First Steps is an almost all-volunteer organization, counting only two part-time paid positions, we have consistently been able to place more than 90 percent of donations directly into programs.
With your help, First Steps can deliver more soymilk to more children to meet their nutritional requirements. Working together with other in-country organizations, as well as nutritionists and scientists at the Institute of Child Nutrition, we will continue to monitor and report on the measurable outcomes of the assistance you help to provide.
