By Alhassan Mamman Muhammad
Rearing healthy and sound children is an issue that has a bearing on the prospect and 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 the 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.
Mr. Alhassan Mamman Muhammad. Professor, Faculty of social science, University of Abuja.
