One Man’s Initiative to Save Abandoned Babies
by GMBF with input from the editor
“This is a facility for the protection of life. If you cannot raise your baby because he or she is born with a deformity or you’re a single mom, don’t leave your baby to die. Open this box and place your baby inside.”
DISCLAIMER: The statements in this article are not meant to criticize South Korean culture but to give context to a complex socio-politico-economic issue that encompasses all nations. We mentioned disparities and contrasts to illustrate the difference between South Korean culture and those of North America and Western Europe, and not to imply that one is better than the other.
Child abandonment is a global problem and reporting on the South Korean angle is simply one way of bringing attention to it.
This site is not meant to be a medical or counseling platform, but a self-help resource. All content on this website is for educational and informational purposes only. This article is based on the writer’s personal opinion. It does not constitute medical advice and is not a substitute for any kind of professional advice.
Readers should never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something they read on this site. Always consult your primary care physician or related professional before making any career, legal, medical, travel, or financial decision.
How ironic that millions of couples around the world want to have a child but are denied the privileges of parenthood, yet so many mothers are abandoning their babies or having them aborted.
Pastor Lee Jong-rak of Jusarang Community Church in South Korea has found a temporary solution, not to correct the unjust imbalance mentioned above, but to save babies’ lives. (Jusarang means “God’s Love.”)
He has turned his home and church into a nursery and orphanage of sorts to welcome unwanted children. He has made it easier for mothers to leave their babies in a safe place anonymously, rather than abandoning them in dangerous places like public washrooms and bus terminals—or worse, selling or killing them. His solution: the Babybox.
How does the Babybox work?
The Babybox is a heated, blanket-lined box Pastor Lee and his wife Chun-ja installed in a wall of the laundry room in their home and parish.
A mother outside the building can open the Babybox door and leave her infant in the receptacle inside. Weight sensors in the box trigger a light, so the mom can see where she’s placing her baby. Then Beethoven’s Für Elise chimes for 10 seconds, alerting Pastor Lee and his staff to the new arrival.
An inscription on the window above the Babybox hatch says: “This is a facility for the protection of life. If you cannot raise your baby because he or she was born with a deformity, or you’re a single mother, don’t leave your baby to die. Open the box below and place your baby inside.”
Atop the baby door is a Bible verse in Korean accompanying the above plea: “Though my father and mother have forsaken me, the Lord will take me in.” (Psalm 27:10)
Proper Procedures
Though the Babybox is an informal operation, its administration follows protocols every time a newborn arrives:
Babybox staff call the police, paramedics, and a nursing facility.
The police conduct information gathering.
The medics do a DNA swab for future matching to allow the mother to reclaim her baby or to enable the child to reach its birth parents later, as a grown-up.
The medics take the baby to a hospital for a checkup.
The nursing facility processes the infant’s paperwork, so it can be placed for adoption or in childcare facilities.
Meanwhile, Pastor Lee and his staff care for the baby for six months. A drop-off at an adoption agency or orphanage occurs thereafter. Otherwise, the child will go into the welfare system.
Hope for Troubled Mothers
Sometimes, when staff members catch up to the mother, they give her on-the-spot counseling and encourage her to keep her baby. Infants whose mothers absolutely cannot take care of them are sent to orphanages, placed for adoption, or institutionalized. But since these processes are long and difficult, the babies are often left under Pastor Lee and his staff’s care indefinitely.
Lim Sun Ju, Babybox’s manager and team leader of operations, also counsels moms aside from caring for abandoned babies. She and other counselors in the team advise 180 to 190 mothers in a year. These are women Babybox staff members have caught up to in the process of leaving their babies. Because of Babybox's counseling program, some mothers change their minds and take their babies back.
“The children return to their birth families 30% of the time,” Pastor Lee confirms.
Through Jusarang Community Church’s charity, he gives the mothers who reclaim their kids supplies like diapers, infant clothes, rice, noodles, and milk.
Some women who told Pastor Lee their agonizing personal stories became renewed. Simply unburdening their troubles to someone made them feel lighter. “The hour or two they pour out their hearts is their time of healing,” he explains.
He urged them to become spiritual moms who pray for their kids. Many go on to attend church retreats and discover God. Two of them called him one day and said they had become sisters in Christ.
One high school student who gave up her son now thanks God for him because she “received salvation because of him.”
How did the Babybox start?
Pastor Lee’s caring for multiple children started when his biological son Eun-man was born severely disabled from cerebral palsy with an enormous cyst on his left cheek. Surgery removed the growth, but Eun-man still spent the rest of his life bedridden. When Eun-man got a major complication from his illness, Pastor Lee and Chun-ja practically lived in the hospital for 14 years to care for him.
While there, Pastor Lee saw many babies whose parents rejected them. Out of compassion, he brought home some of them, as many as the authorities allowed. He and Chun-ja have since adopted 19 children, all with disabilities.
Eun-man lived to be 32 before he died. In retrospect, Eun-man’s disability inspired the pastor to save other lives that were most vulnerable, devalued, and susceptible to being discarded. “Through Eun-man, I learned about the dignity of valuable life,” he recalls.
There was also an incident in April 2007 when a woman, who had previously left her baby at the front door of the parish, called in the nick of time to alert Pastor Lee to it. By the time he saw the baby, it was close to dying from hypothermia. It was placed in a box that was used to hold fish. Pastor Lee saw a cat lurking near it. If he hadn’t gotten to the kid on time, it would have become dinner for that feline.
That was when the pastor and his wife knew it was time to have a safer system in place for welcoming discarded infants.
Those two circumstances, plus a news article Pastor Lee read about a box for deserted babies in the Czech Republic, preceded the way to the implementation of the Babybox in South Korea. He set up the local Babybox in December 2009.
Denizens of the Babybox
The first baby arrived in March 2010. In a month, 18 more were left in the Babybox. It now receives 220 to 250 per year. Pastor Lee told independent media company Asian Boss in his 2019 interview with them that since the program’s inception, close to 1,600 infants arrived at his parish.
Some came naked. Around 100 newborns arrived with their umbilical cords still attached. These were infants born in public toilets, empty buildings, friends’ houses, or on the mountain.
Once, a mother brought her baby to the parish while she was still bleeding from the delivery. Earlier, she had dug a hole in the ground with the intent of burying him alive but came to her senses when she heard him cry. Most of the relinquished infants have physical or mental disabilities.
Pastor Lee wants to make it clear, though, that despite all their tragic circumstances, abandoning parents should treat the Babybox as a last resort and not a handy place in which to dump children who inconvenience them.
Despite already caring for two fully dependent, severely disabled children (one biological; the other, a dying grandmother had placed in Lee’s care), the pastor continues to protect unwanted babies from danger.
His Babybox program goes beyond providing infants basic needs. It also enables them to experience love, care, acceptance, and a sense of belonging in a two-parent setting—with him and his wife as surrogate mom and dad.
How does the parish maintain the Babybox?
Pastor Lee maintains the Babybox with the help of parish personnel and volunteer workers. Donations from private individuals, organizations, and crowdfunding also support it. These included a gift of US$65,000 (70 million South Korean won in 2019) to the Babybox Foundation as a result of the fundraising efforts of Stephen Park, Kei Ibaraki, and the Asian Boss crew.
After the release of a documentary on the Babybox (see below), donations to the Jusarang Community Church (now aka the “Babybox Church”) and South Korean adoption agencies enabled the Lees, the Babybox staff, and their wards to relocate to a larger home. The previous church has since been converted into a maternity shelter.
Reasons Why Parents Abandon Their Babies
There are many reasons why mothers leave their babies to Pastor Lee’s care through the Babybox. In the conservative culture of South Korea, it is taboo to get pregnant outside marriage. Instead of bringing disgrace to the family, unwed mothers have no choice but to abandon their babies or have them aborted. Placing them in the Babybox has become one of the more recent options.
Most of the abandoning parents are singles with babies born out of wedlock—60% of them teenagers. The youngest mother to leave her child in the Babybox was 13 years old.
Many dumped babies are products of extramarital affairs, incest, or rape. Others are offspring of undocumented foreign workers or those who cannot officially register their babies for unspecified reasons.
Primary reasons for child abandonment worldwide:
poverty
family pressure
social stigma against single motherhood or having a child born out of wedlock
lack of government and social assistance
lack of sex education
poor family planning information
having too many children
babies with HIV/AIDS
prejudice against disabled children (traditional folk view them as cursed)
pregnancy as a result of sexual abuse, incest, or rape
postnatal depression
the baby’s gender (In countries like India and Pakistan, traditional families prefer male babies over female ones because the latter cost their parents expensive dowries.)
Tokens of Love and Sorrow
Some mothers who left their babies in the Babybox also included mementos and letters. Most of the messages expressed love, apology, and remorse at having given up their babies because they were faced with difficult situations. Others pledged to return for their children someday. Pastor Lee saved all of these keepsakes and compiled them in 15 thick books.
Babybox Detractors
As with any other founder of an organization, Pastor Lee has his share of critics. Two of them are the South Korean government and Reverend Kim Do Hyun, who runs KoRoot (meaning “House of Korean Roots”), an organization that helps adoptees find their birth parents. The Presbyterian minister claims the Babybox is a “separation system” that disconnects the child from the mother.
Reverend Kim says of Pastor Lee: “He has a narrow viewpoint regarding the problem of babies being killed or left behind by their parents. He has a fantasy that what he is doing is the only solution.”
He claims that Pastor Lee believes he is saving children, but his Babybox gives moms an easy way out of their problems and serves as a “free pass” to ditch their kids.
But isn’t Reverend Kim’s opinion the same as saying, “Giving condoms to high school students only encourages them to engage in irresponsible sex”?
In fairness to Reverend Kim, his KoRoot organization promulgated a “Single Mother’s Day” in 2011 (now a yearly event) to raise awareness for the rights of single mothers and minimize the stigma they encounter daily. Sadly, this is still going on, even in the 21st century.
KoRoot also collaborates with other volunteer groups to lobby for Korea’s adoption law to meet international standards.
Despite Pastor Lee’s noble intentions, some lawmakers denigrated his program for encouraging infant dumping and attempted to shut it down. Fortunately, sympathetic legislators defended him and passed a law that allows unregistered babies to be relinquished in his care.
In the Czech Republic, baby boxes are legal under Czech law. In spite of police opposition, their Ministry of Social Affairs confirmed the legality in 2006. Also, the Save the Children Foundation officially supports Babyboxes, the first of which was set up in July 2005 in Prague by the organization, Statim.
Without the Babybox, what will happen to abandoned babies?
If the Babybox did not exist, babies left outdoors or in public areas and not immediately found by the authorities or kind people will most likely die from exposure to the elements or suffer from human or animal predators.
Unwanted babies discovered by the authorities are usually placed in orphanages or government facilities. But adoption is uncertain, especially with changes in the adoption law.
Sure, other facilities in Korea take in the forsaken and the homeless. But the Babybox is different in that it welcomes children who fall through the cracks in the system.
A primary difference between South Korea and the USA is that almost all babies left under the American Safe Haven laws (see below) get adopted—even those with disabilities—while most of the Babybox infants end up institutionalized. After all, Pastor Lee cannot adopt all of them.
The New Adoption Law in South Korea
The Korean government revised the Special Adoption Law in August 2012, which made rules stricter for people who want to adopt children.
The changes include:
Banning the adoption of unregistered babies
Requiring all biological mothers to register their newborns
Requiring them to submit a Family Relationship Certificate to the Family Court so the baby can be approved for adoption (This violates their privacy and puts them at the peril of family or societal retribution.)
Requiring them to keep their babies for seven days before placing them for adoption
Forbidding adoptive parents to lie about the origins of their kids (Some, out of cultural shame, claim their children are biological even if they are adopted. This is because adoption in this society is still stigmatized.)
The Special Adoption Act amendment was meant to protect South Korean kids from overseas adoption fraud and being adopted by potential abusers. It was also passed to increase domestic adoption and serve adoptees’ rights to know their birth records, so they can find their birth parents later.
Before 2012, only three babies maximum per month were left in the box. But after 2012, the number jumped to 25. Government data showed that the number of dumped babies nationwide more than doubled from 2012 to 2013. Domestic adoption—already uncommon due to the practice being culturally looked down upon—also dropped 39% that year until 2013.
Letters to Jusarang parish revealed that almost 50% of the abandoning mothers blamed the new law as the main reason they used the Babybox.
On September 21, 2014, South Korea’s Department of Justice, Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Human Rights Association of Korea, announced that they were considering a revision to the Family Relationship Registration Law. The amendment is meant to protect the birth parents’ private information during registration—whether their children are adopted or not.
Time will tell if this revised law will have an impact on baby dumping.
Government Perspective
The South Korean government views the Babybox differently. Men Heung-ju, a female minister of parliament (MP) closely involved with the revision of the adoption law, says the Babybox is illegal and should close down because the people who leave their babies there don’t have their offspring registered.
In South Korea, not registering the birth of your baby is a crime. The MP said it is the right of the baby to be properly documented, but she did not suggest any alternative solution to the problem of infant dumping.
The Babybox still exists, thanks to a legal loophole. The capital, Seoul, does not have an outright ban against the program, but it does not give any financial support, either.
Success Stories
Lee Ru-Ree is one of the recipients of the Babybox program. He was born with both hands deformed. His parents left him at birth in the hospital 19 years ago. Pastor Lee adopted him.
According to Ru-Ree, he is so grateful to his father for saving his life. Though Pastor Lee is not related to him by blood and therefore not obliged to raise him (as per Korean culture), Pastor Lee loved him and treated him like family. Ru-Ree sees his father as an amazing man who deserves everyone’s respect.
A couple met their two daughters, Hae-ssal and Yi-seul, through the Babybox. The adoptive parents perceive Pastor Lee as the savior of their children. They said that without his nurturing, the girls would not have survived the weather and hunger, and could have ended up on the street or in front of the supermarket. The kids vividly remember Pastor Lee, for he raised them before their adoption.
These are just a few of the Babybox success stories. Many more children grew up to lead normal lives because of Pastor Lee.
His ministry has inspired several church leaders in other districts to implement their own child-saving initiatives. Sadly, a church in Busan ended its Babybox program due to antagonism from its neighborhood and local authorities.
The Babybox Goes to Hollywood
Pastor Lee has also inspired filmmaker Brian Tetsuro Ivie to make a documentary about the Babybox titled The Drop Box. Arbella Studios and Pine Creek Entertainment released it to the global viewing community in 2015, beginning in the USA.
Ivie was inspired to cover Pastor Lee’s mission after reading about it in a Los Angeles Times article in 2011. He wrote the pastor, who invited him to come to Korea and live with the parish residents, so he could witness what the ministry does firsthand. What resulted was a 72-minute documentary made possible through a Kickstarter campaign.
During the making of the movie, Ivie and his younger brother Kevin became Christians. The documentary later spawned a book with the same title, penned by Ivie and co-author Ted Luck.
The documentary won the $100,000 grand prize at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival. Ivie donated $50,000 to Pastor Lee and used the other half to create Kindred Image, a nonprofit dedicated to ending infant ditching using holistic solutions.
Its projects include adoption support, care packages, counseling, plus pre- and post-natal support for expectant moms. It has raised $1.4 million for orphans and foster care in the US. It also helps Lee’s ministry.
Ivie claims, “Countless families tell us they’re now planning to adopt” as a result of watching his documentary.
The baby box concept has since spread to other nations. Still, it is not a novel idea.
The Original Babybox
A depository for unwanted babies is not a new invention. Its predecessor was called a “foundling wheel.” An abandoned child is called a “foundling” instead of “runaway” or “orphan.”
The first foundling wheel was built in 1198 in Italy. Pope Innocent III ordered their installation so that women could secretly leave their children there instead of killing them. It was a response to the many drowned babies found in the Tiber River at that time.
One foundling wheel (left) can still be found at the Ospedale Santo Spirito (the home of the first one) in Sassia, Rome.
According to Wikipedia, foundling wheels were commonly used in medieval times and the 18th and 19th centuries, then decommissioned. That is, until 1952 when a modern equivalent surfaced called the “baby hatch.”
Since then, countries including Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, China, Japan, South Africa, Hungary, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Latvia, Austria, Canada, Switzerland, and the USA have been actively providing them to desperate mothers.
The hatches are typically installed in churches, hospitals, and community centers.
In India’s Tamil Nadu, their chief minister in 1994 set up a baby hatch to prevent the killing of female babies. The state raises the foundlings (called “cradle babies”) left in the cot and gives them free education.
In 2002, an Indian technology charity designed the e-cradle, which plays an electronic lullaby and sets off an alarm to alert care staff whenever a baby is placed in the crib. It was in response to an incident wherein dogs ripped apart a newborn ditched in front of Trivandrum Medical College.
In Belgium, the Mothers for Mothers association installed one baby hatch in Antwerp. The organization Corvia set up a second one in Brussels, but it was outlawed twice by two different mayors.
In the Philippines, the Hospicio de San José, a Roman Catholic welfare institution run by Saint Vincent de Paul’s Sisters of Charity, has been taking in not just foundlings, but also unwanted older children with physical and mental disabilities and the forsaken elderly since its inception in October 1778. The organization calls its baby box “turning cradle.”
In Germany, baby hatch management gives the mother eight weeks to reclaim her offspring without any legal repercussions. If she does not turn up within that time, her child is put up for adoption.
Russia used to have baby hatches, but the government banned them in 2016 upon the prompting of Senator Elena Mizulina. Officials say they violate the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Definition of Child Abandonment
The term refers to the practice of parents surrendering their duties and responsibilities over their children for some reason or other and leaving them in hospitals, streets, dumpsites, or with other people. In this way, the parents deprive their children of their basic needs and human rights.
Wikipedia defines child abandonment as the illegal practice of giving up interests and claims over one’s child without ever reassuming guardianship.
The phrase typically describes physical abandonment, but it can also refer to neglect and emotional abandonment. For example, when parents fail to support their children emotionally and financially for a long time.
“Baby dumping” refers to parents leaving a child younger than 12 months in a public or private place, intending to terminate their care for the child.
A related term is “rehoming,” wherein parents search for new homes for their children using illegal means, like internet sites.
Statistics
Child abandonment is one of the most serious global issues we face today. According to the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), there were 143 million abandoned and orphaned youth in 93 developing countries in 2004. This number represented 8.4% of all the world’s children in that year. The current UNICEF estimated figure is 153 million orphaned kids worldwide.
But the problem is so endemic, it is not limited to poor nations. Even in wealthy countries like the USA, an estimated 150 infants every year are ditched along roadsides, in creeks, train station lockers, or in rubbish bins. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption states that 443,000 kids are in US foster care and 123,000 of them are considered to be “children waiting to be adopted.”
In 1993, the US Department of Health and Human Services commissioned a federal study that revealed that in one year, at least 22,000 babies were left in hospitals by parents unable (or unwilling) to care for them. Of that number, 75% were exposed to illegal drugs.
These infants are called “boarder babies,” who are moved into the child welfare system five days after they are ready to leave the hospital.
In the US alone, 1,840 children died from abuse or neglect in 2019, as per data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. So it isn’t just a problem of abandonment but also neglect.
Solutions for the Prevention of Child Abandonment
These are some of the provisions governments and organizations offer to prevent child desertion:
✓ Proper Sex Education and Family Planning
There is a saying about sexual relations: “A moment of pleasure can lead to a lifetime of regret.” Or responsibility, depending on whether the conception is wanted or not.
Great, if the babies were conceived out of love. Unfortunately, this is not the case with all conceptions, thus leading to child desertion or abortion.
Baby abandonment starts from unwanted pregnancy. Irresponsible or forced sex is the root cause. Proper sex education teaches people to have self-discipline, be more responsible, and know how to avoid dangerous situations. It also informs victims of rape, incest, or sexual abuse what to do and where to ask for assistance.
Couples must also reflect on the consequences of pregnancy. Anticipating what can happen in the future will urge them to do the right thing. Knowledge about family planning will help them space their children based on their maturity, financial capacity, earning potential, and diligence in caring for their children.
It is important for parents, families, and the youth to seek counseling and advice from health authorities, counselors, religious people, or respected elders who will enlighten and guide them to make the right decision.
Counseling will prevent reluctant parents from abandoning their babies. It will give them clarity of mind and lessen confusion and anxiety. It will also help them psychologically and emotionally.
Knowing that there is someone who listens, supports, and cares for them would help them be stronger, more confident, and encourage them to keep their babies.
✓ Strong Family Ties
Some people who desert their children were also rejected by their parents physically, emotionally, financially, or psychologically. These parents do not get enough support from their families.
If their families are loving, caring, and supportive, the new parents will also treat their babies the same way. A strong family bond is essential for children not to go astray in life.
✓ Empowerment
Teaching new parents assertiveness, confidence, and parenting skills will help them accept the situation they are in and be proactive about it. Empowering mothers, parents, and families to find ways to lift themselves from poverty, problems, and social discrimination will give them a sense of security, giving them the capacity to take care of their children.
✓ Community Intervention
The community should be involved in the prevention of baby ditching. Moral support, training, and funds will help new parents and their families. Family planning, personality development, and livelihood programs will address poverty, generate income, and provide child care and nutrition.
✓ Government Involvement
Governments should create clearer, specific, and proactive laws to prevent this global problem. In the US, the government established transitional housing for some babies as an interim measure before placing them with adoptive/foster parents. But these shelters usually become permanent because of the intricacies of finding foster care.
✓ Refuge for Baby, Immunity for Mommy
In 1998, the US government passed “Safe Haven” laws, which designated safe places for parents to leave their offspring where the children can be taken care of without the abandoning parent facing criminal charges.
The Safe Haven laws were the indirect result of the efforts of paramedic Tim Jaccard. He founded the Ambulance Medical Technicians—Children of Hope Foundation in 1998. His mission was to push for state laws allowing parents to give up a newborn child legally and anonymously in secure venues.
Since 2008, all 50 states and Washington DC are maintaining their variation of the Safe Haven laws.
Most states do not obligate the parents or their designee to reveal their names and addresses but some allow the child’s receiver (like a nurse) to ask for information. Some parents provide their child’s medical history, but it’s optional.
The maximum age a child can be left in a safe haven varies per state: from 72 hours to a year old. Most state laws have a clause giving the recipient immunity from prosecution, while also allowing parents to reclaim the child within a specified period.
Babies left in safe havens receive medical care and complete Medicaid coverage within a day. Afterward, the state’s child welfare system takes over, verifying if the infants are eligible for adoption and are not involved in kidnapping cases. It also allows fathers to claim custody. It takes an average of six months from relinquishment to permanent placement in adoption or foster care.
Venues considered safe havens:
hospitals with emergency departments
fire stations
police departments
In most states, leaving a child in an unsafe location constitutes child abuse and is considered a felony. If the child dies due to deliberate desertion, the charge is reckless abandonment with severe penalties.
Opposition to Safe Haven laws
Like the Babybox, Safe Haven laws have also come under fire from critics who claim that anonymous relinquishments only encourage parents to get rid of their kids without consequence. Even some UN officials joined in the fray, saying these laws “violate a child’s right to know his identity.”
Other detractors reason that Safe Haven laws and baby boxes don’t solve the underlying reasons for infant dumping, including irresponsible sex, domestic abuse, substance abuse, mental health issues, lack of support, and poverty. Yet these complainers fail to recommend effective alternatives.
✓ Anonymous Delivery
Several European countries like France and Austria have laws that allow anonymous births in hospitals. Some are even free.
Retrospection
Amid all these opposing opinions and debates, Pastor Lee, now in his twilight years, is still fighting to keep his Babybox running despite financial limitations.
Pastor Lee is indeed an admirable person with a big heart. People like him who dedicate their lives to neglected members of society are rare. But he didn’t start out to be a hero, nor did he plan on doing any charity work when he was younger.
He revealed in several TV interviews that he was not the kind of person capable of casting love so widely, much less unconditionally loving strangers’ offspring.
Years before he entered the clergy, he suffered from severe alcoholism, which led him to lose multiple jobs, terminate friendships, be estranged from immediate family, get into brawls, get arrested, and regularly beat his wife.
But when he repented and welcomed God into his life, he was able to do the impossible. His long-suffering wife never left his side and became his bastion of support during the toughest times in his life.
Let his kindness and compassion be an inspiration and motivation to create similar programs that protect people’s lives.
If everyone would follow his example, this would be a better place to live, where people can experience the best life has to offer.
What Lies Ahead
Pastor Lee can only grimace at the hostilities targeting the Babybox. Who would have thought saving lives would be met with such antagonism?
“It’s a sad reality that I have to be doing this,” he says, shaking his head forlornly. “I really hope the day will come when the Babybox will no longer be needed,” he postulates.
“That means we need to take care of single mothers. I want to build a village where they can safely raise their children and live independently. And those mothers whose children have disabilities will be able to grow their own small gardens for sustenance. That’s what we're planning and praying about.”
The pastor is referring to a multipurpose facility he envisions for the future. It will have a protective section for unwed mothers where they can recuperate from physical, emotional, and mental pain. It will have a rehabilitation venue, a healing center, and an alternative school for children with disabilities.
How long does Pastor Lee plan on maintaining his ministry? “This work is never-ending,” he says. “So I must keep working tirelessly until God calls me.”
Nota bene: Pastor Lee Jong-rak is a different person from Reverend Lee Jae-rok, a minister of the Manmin Central Holiness Church in Seoul who was convicted for abusing eight of his female followers.
Sources:
Definitions
Child Abandonment and Prevention
Adoption
Statistics on orphaned and abandoned children
Information on the Babybox
Videos
Photo Credits:
Main photo—Pixabay Creative Commons Zero license (CC0)
Pastor Lee with a baby—David Kim, Kindred Image
Baby holding on to its parent’s finger—CC0
Baby feet jutting out of a basket—CC0
Pregnancy test—RODNAE Productions
Gift boxes—Acharaporn Kamornboonyarush
Egg in a box—Ivan Samkov
Toddler and teddy on a bridge—CC0
Twin babies—CC0
Brian Tetsuro Ivie—Mackenzie Breeden, Creative Commons Share Alike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Foundling wheel—Casimir at Dutch Wikipedia, Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Couple with ultrasound photo—Melike Benli
Mom and dad’s hands encircling baby feet—Andreas Wohlfahrt
Mom holding up baby— Pixabay’s open clipart vectors
Baby and teddy in a basket—Georgia Maciel
Prehistoric family cartoon—Grafikacesky
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