Region: Central Asia
Author: Lee Hwan-Hee, Hwan-Hee's Home and Hwan-Hee Organic Farming Network
Consortium Member: Virtual Foundation Director (ECOLOGIA)
Status: Funded and Ongoing
Budget: $3619
Collected: $3619
Needs: $0
Result: To heal infants and children suffering from atopic dermatitis ("topi"), a painful skin disease prevalent in South Korea
Comment: The clinic, "Hwan-Hee's Home", treats infants and children by switching the entire family to organic foods (to avoid pesticide and herbicide residues, which are higher in South Korea than in any other nation), and providing a calm low-stress environment for daily visits.
Donor: Katherine Gould-Martin, and all donors to "Fruits and Vegetables for Pregnant Uzbekistani Women". We were unable to get the funds to the Uzbek women's group, due to the inhospitable climate for NGOs in Uzbekistan in recent years. Katherine Gould-Martin supported the allocation of the funding originally designated for the Uzbek project, to the Hwan-Hee Home in South Korea instead.
Hwan-Hee's Home, located in Daejeon, South Korea, is a health clinic focusing on babies who have what Koreans refer to as "topi" (atopic dermatitis). This is a very painful itchy rash which is caused by a combination of stresses, including agricultural chemical exposure through pesticides/herbicides in food. It is very common in South Korea, and also among other Asian populations, so there may be a genetic susceptibility component as well.
Photo above: Family at Hwan-Hee Clinic. Family close-up (especially the one-year-old) - the "before" photos showed him covered with reddish scabs over his entire body (babies scratch at the itchy skin, even when their hands are put into mitts). Now there is just a bit of rash visible on his face. The entire family had "topi", but none so badly as the little boy, before they found the clinic. Lee Hwan-Hee is the young man on the right. The photos on the table are of patients, including this family.
Babies and young children are treated primarily through a change to an organic food diet, involving their whole family. This is especially important for children who are still nursing, as the agricultural chemicals can be transmitted through breast milk. Carolyn Schmidt (Program Director of ECOLOGIA/Virtual Foundation) met some of the families, talked with mothers, and saw children who were back to near-normal after about a six-month course of treatment. (verifiable "before and after" documentation). The clinic she visited was in a low-income area; Hwan-Hee has also started one in a higher-income area to try to get some income flow to help out with the costs for the poorer families. Lee Hwan-Hee started and runs this clinic on his own, funding it out of the organic farm proceeds. He has not received any government support.
This organization (organic farming network, and the health clinic, which is based in Daejeon) is a true grassroots response to health needs of the local community.
When Hwan-Hee (who is 25 years old, and does not have any children of his own) was asked why he wanted to focus on babies, he said that their sadness and suffering, their lack of understanding of where their pain was coming from, and the lack of ability of conventional medicine to relieve it, was so widespread and compelling he wanted to start there. [Hospitals usually prescribe steroids, which in infants can have many complications, as well as not being a long-term solution.] "Hwan-Hee's Home" started as an independent clinic in early 2006; in 2008 it received approval as a "legitimate Oriental medicine Hospital", which means that it now has MDs on its staff, and has met criteria set by the medical establishment in South Korea.
Budget
| General organizational support | $3290 |
| Rent, utilities, supplies, staff time | |
| VF administrative fee | $329 |
| Total for this project | $3619 |