Pastor saves life with baby box

Pastor Lee Jong-rak shows the“baby box” where parents who decide not to raise their babies ― mostly disabled children ― can leave them.

/ Korea Times photo by Kim Rahn

By Kim Rahn

The bell rang ― a sound that Pastor Lee Jong-rak didn’t want to hear ― a signal that a baby had been abandoned.

Lee went to the balcony wall of his house, opened the door of a cabinet-like box installed in a hole in the wall, and found a baby boy about 10-days-old crying in it.

Holding the baby, Lee and his wife Jeong Byeong-ok cried, he said. The “baby box” was made so that deserted babies could be protected instead of being abandoned on garbage dumps grounds; but they were still not fully prepared for first time it was used.

This was in March last year, and since then six more babies have been placed in the baby box constructed by God’s Love Community, located in a poor area on a hillside in Nangok, southwestern Seoul.

Baby box

The community has 19 “family” members: The Lees, their son, and 16 children who were abandoned. The 58-year-old pastor has taken care of deserted children for 14 years ― most of them having serious physical or mental handicaps, or the offspring of single mothers.

A cat inspired Lee to make the baby box. “Knowing that I looked after disabled children, parents would leave their babies near my house. In 2007, a mother called at 3 a.m. and said she left her baby minutes ago. I went out and found a baby girl, covered with a blanket and lying in a paper box. Then a feral cat passed by. The thinking that they could hurt babies abandoned on garbage dumps or in alleyways frightened me. I thought I had to do something to protect them,” Lee said.

Then the pastor saw news that a Czech hospital operated a baby box. He tried to contact the hospital for six months to import the device to no avail, so he designed and made one himself: Lee made a hole in the wall and installed a box with two sets of doors so that a parent could put the baby in it from outside without having to come into the house, and Lee could take the baby into the house without having to go outside.

The second child coming through the box was christened Saebyeok, and has Down’s syndrome and a heart disorder. On a letter put beside the baby was written: “Please forgive me, please don’t try to find me. I’m so afraid, and I’m suffering from enough pain because I’m truly sorry about my baby.”

Another baby, Kiri, was put in the box with a note, which said the boy had facial, sight and hearing disorders, also asking the pastor not to try to find the parents.

Lee said data from the health and welfare ministry indicates 600 to 700 babies are abandoned per year, but unofficially the number is put at over 1,000.

“Only about 20 percent of them survive, with others dying from hypothermia in winter and from infections when dumped on garbage sites or in restrooms. There should be countermeasures to save such children. If there are places where parents can leave babies anonymously, they would not leave them on garbage dumps or in restrooms. The baby box is the last resort for babies who would otherwise die,” Lee said.

Commitment to disabled, deserted children

The pastor began to pay attention to disabled children after having his second son who has suffered from general paralysis for 25 years after suffering brain damage. “While taking care of him at a hospital for more than 10 years, I learned the difficult situation the handicapped face. I began to take home disabled babies whose parents had abandoned them in hospitals at birth.”

Years ago, Lee also encountered a father who later committed infanticide. The parent brought his baby, who had a cleft lip, to the community a day after its birth.

“The baby couldn’t suckle because of the lip, so I sent them to a hospital to have the baby get feeding tube inserted. I thought the father went up to the ward, but he ran away and killed the baby. The baby could live a normal life after undergoing a simple operation. I learned that parents who decide not to take responsibility for raising their children can be dangerous to them,” he said.

A girl named Han-na, who died four years ago, also made the pastor dedicate himself to the cause. “Her 14-year-old mother smoked and drank when pregnant, and she was born with anencephaly. When Han-na came here, doctors said she would soon die. She was paralyzed and couldn’t do anything, but she survived for six years before she died, and it really broke my heart. Sending her to Heaven, I decided to devote myself to these children.”

More support needed

Some 280 volunteers help with the children, but it’s still not easy for Lee and his wife to take care of them, especially with six babies aged under one.

Financial difficulty is another problem, as medical fees are needed for the children in addition to the usual childcare expenses. And above all, a larger house than the current old, two-story one is needed.

“Several conditions are required to be recognized by the government as a welfare center for the disabled ― an elevator, no thresholds, and larger space per person,” Lee said, adding it would cost 1.6 billion won to buy the house next door and to expand and remodel the two into a community home. They have been receiving donations but that are far short of the required sum.

The pastor said it is very difficult to raise disabled children in Korean society, which lacks laws and systems to support them, resulting in abandonment.

“The state gives little help to disabled children’s medical care, surgery and education. Parents of such children admit they’ve attempted to kill the children and themselves.”

Lee said such a negative social atmosphere leads to abortion of disabled fetuses. “These days a very small number of disabled children are born, because parents abort when seeing any fetal disorder on ultrasound scans. We can’t deprive a life of the chance to be born just because it is handicapped,” he said.

The pastor said he would continue taking care of disabled children until there are no more abandoned babies. “I always pray to God that no more babies will be left here. I hope Korea will become a state where all children will be better protected,” he said.