🌟 [ 8 ]   SOUTH KOREA: ANNIVERSARY OF IMF LOAN [ @AP Archive ]

(3 Dec 1998) Korean/Nat Thursday marks the first anniversary of South Korea accepting a record 58 (b) billion U-S dollar pay out from the International Monetary Fund to keep the country from going bankrupt. Since then the country s economy has been through a tough period of readjustment, one of the side effects being a steady rise in unemployment. That s set to continue next year, causing fears of a growing social crisis and a threat to the family unit. Already, growing poverty has led to more and more children being sent to temporary shelters because parents can no longer afford to care for them. In this sunny, overheated room, 30 babies ranging from newborn to three year-olds sleep and play. Only one full-time carer looks after them - on a good day she has two volunteers to help out. Most of these babies have been abandoned at nearby police stations or just outside the entrance of this shelter. Many have been abandoned by parents who can no longer afford to care for them - at least 20 per cent of the children here are not orphans. Sim Yang Keum has been involved with children s welfare for twenty years. During her career, about 10-thousand children have passed through her care. But the number has drastically increased in the past year and this has surprised her. As the director of this temporary shelter, Sim and her staff operate a child abuse hot line and take in children who have nowhere to go. Currently, the shelter has a hundred children in its care: 30 more than it s designed to cater for. Since the government passed the temporary protection law, shelters like this one are allowed to take in children who have living parents. Before the law, only children who were orphans were taken in. Sim says this is good thing because the shelter is now able to meet with the parent, get the personal social security numbers and know the child s name and birth date. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) Since the government swiftly .

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