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South Korea
Summer 2004
By: Julie Lee, Class of 2008
Patches of Love's founder and CEO, Julie Lee, organized the
inaugural trip in 2003 to rural South Korea. She and other
volunteers delivered quilts to 93 orphans at the Kwangju Yung Ah
Home. Julie was moved by her experience and decided not only to
bring Patches of Love to the University of Massachusetts Medical
School when she matriculated as a medical student, but also to
incorporate a medical component to future trips.
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Before Patches of Love, the only orphanages I had encountered were the
ones I had read about in books, heard about in the news or watched in
movies like Annie. But never having visited one first-hand, I was still
unsure what to expect on our first trip. Would the conditions be as
unsightly as they are always depicted to be? Would the overseeing adults
be uncaring and unloving? Would the kids be malnourished and a vision of
deteriorating health? Would I be able to leave them in such a place
after the trip without feelings of guilt and helplessness? And finally,
despite their situation, would my trip be able to provide at least a
small glimmer of hope and love to these children? These thoughts swam
through my mind as I braced myself for the uncertain but what transpired
into one of the most heart-felt and bittersweet experiences of my life.
And 'til this day, the pleasant image that my eyes caught sight of upon
arrival at the front gate of the orphanage still rests vivid in my mind:
colorful tricycles neatly lined up and a hundred little eyes peering out
from the window watching us as we carried in the suitcases full of
quilts. Then, immediately, all 70 little ones flocked outside to the
yard and started climbing on us, asking to be held. Imagine that- 3
year olds who usually go through anxiety around new and unfamiliar
faces, asking to be held and loved by complete strangers. That is when
I knew that more than the quilts and more than monetary donations, what
these precious kiddos needed most of all was love and attention.
The inaugural Patches of Love trip was to the Kwangju Baby orphanage in
Kwangju, South Korea, a rural region in the southern most part of South
Korea. The children ranged from age 6 months to 5 years old. I was
accompanied by my immediate family (my mother, my brother, my sister, my
uncle, and my close friend and co-director at that time, Lillian). We
spent the entire day there, playing with the kids, holding them, handing
out the quilts and personalizing each of them by signing their names at
the bottom of the quilt they chose as their own. We had our first quilt
ceremony, which to our most recent trips has continued to be a Patches
of Love tradition: the kids line up and we call each of them up to the
front where we hand them their own quilt to keep while the other
children clap and cheer in excitement. Many of the kids had never
received anything of their own- the teachers told us that since birth,
they had been taught to share everything including clothes, toys and
even blankets at nighttime. So, you can imagine the smile on their
angelic faces when given their own quilt to either cherish or dirty,
whichever they preferred.
At the end of the day, it was time for us to go- I will never forget
Yuran, a precocious and adorable little 4 year old girl who followed us
out after we had said goodbye. She brought out a little bag full of her
clothes and asked us if she could take the airplane with us back to
America. This brought tears to my eyes- we gently explained to her that
her friends would miss her if she left. Without much convincing, Yuran
agreed and as she walked back into the orphanage, her friends, all 70 of
them, holding their quilts, started to cheer and wave goodbye. As we
drove away, I finally understood why parting was so bitter sweet. The
image of their tricycles neatly lined up in the yard faded in the
distance, but the bright colors of the quilts that they continued to
wave in the air would leave a beautiful and lasting memory in our
hearts.
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