Imagine you are a mother in a rural area of the Kingdom of Tonga, an island nation in the South Pacific. Eleven months ago you gave birth to your third child, a beautiful little boy.
Everything seems fine until you begin to notice that he still doesn’t hold his head up on his own. Whenever you try to sit him up, he slouches to the side. Your other children had already begun crawling by this time, but he still lays on his stomach or back.
One day, you have taken him out in public when his eyes suddenly roll back in his head, his back arches and after a few moments during which you experience sheer terror, he collapses into unconsciousness. Everyone nearby stops to stare and whisper.
You don’t know it, but your child has cerebral palsy.
After this episode, your husband says God is punishing the family. None of you understand what you may have done wrong, only that nobody can find out why God is against you. So you hide your son. As he grows older and his condition worsens, you teach the other children to pretend their brother doesn’t exist. When visitors come, the family scrambles to hide him in a back room of the house.
This is the fate of many families in Tonga with disabled children. Culturally, disabilities represent a curse from God, so people hide their disabled family members, cutting them off from society.
The Mango Tree Center is gradually changing this stigma. Since Nazarene missionaries Duncan and Charmayne Old opened the center in Houmakelikao, Nuku’alofa, the capital city, in 1994, dozens of disabled people and their families have participated in rehabilitative services, surgeries and vocational classes. Numerous compassionate volunteers, Work & Witness teams and missionaries have brought loving care and dignity to their lives.
In-Kwon and Jeong-Seok Kim, Nazarene missionaries from Korea, arrived in Tonga in 2007 to continue the work at the Mango Tree Center. Rev. In-Kwon Kim describes the ministry and how it continues to bring Tonga’s hidden treasures into the light.
Engage: Why is it necessary to have this ministry in Tonga?
In-Kwon: In the view of the Christian mission, many Tongans think that families with disabled people are being punished by God. Therefore, when the tragedy happens to their family, they feel shame and guilt very easily. This wrong belief leads them to feel that their relationship with God, the Father, is broken. This attitude stops them from going and confessing their agony to God. So, our ministry is to let them experience God’s love and to restore their broken relationship with God.
In the view of social welfare, Tonga is a poor country. The Tongan government doesn’t have any policy for people with disabilities. In a community, people with disabilities are hidden beings. Therefore, it is very difficult for them to get educational or medical service for their disability. The Mango Tree Center helps people with disabilities by providing holistic and family-centered ministries, like spiritual, emotional and physical supports, not only to the disabled alone but also their family, too.
Engage: How many people is the center currently helping?
In-Kwon: Nineteen families are under our Home Visit Care program. Seven children with severe disabilities are in our rehabilitative therapy class. Twenty-five people with disabilities are in computer classes. Fourteen students from families with disabilities are under our scholarship program.
Engage: What are some of the types of disabilities that you assist with?
In-Kwon: Most of them are severely disabled people with cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries (quadriplegia, paraplegia), epilepsy and intellectual impairment.
Engage: Share a story of someone who has become part of the Mango Tree family.
In-Kwon: I first met Sisi in 2007. He was almost blind and his eyes were murky. Unfortunately, his four children suffer from the same symptoms and are losing their own sight. Two of the children used to attend primary school, but not being able to see the board and read books, they had to leave one by one. The third child is going to school but is having a very hard time keeping up, and the way the youngest baby moved his eyes was unusual.
Unfortunately, none of them had been able to have any proper examination. We wanted to help Sisi's children in some way, so we started the Braille class for children with visual impairment. Sisi's children used to play around their neighborhood friends, but their eyesight became worse and it was far too dangerous for them to go outside.
Ophthalmologists from Australia came to Tonga and diagnosed the children and transferred the diagnosis to American ophthalmologists in the United States who came to perform surgery on Sione and Hino’s eyes. They have now begun attending Tupou High School. Thankfully, teachers give them careful concern, so that they can sit in the front row and have friends write down their notes for them.
Engage: What kind of things does your team do to counteract cultural stigmas around disabilities?
In-Kwon: For example, once we took the families for a family camp on the beach. Sitting on their wheelchairs, Iloa and Mateni listened as the volunteers told them stories. From time to time they would nod and give a soft smile. On the other side, Talanoa, 39, suffering from cerebral palsy, giggled at the playfulness of the volunteers. God’s love shone brightly on the disabled—those who had been living in hiding inside dark rooms. God led them outside and gave them the opportunity to have “fellowship with each other.” Before, it seemed impossible that disabled people in Tonga would spend a wonderful time with volunteers at the beach on a public holiday. But God’s love made this possible.
Engage: How many staff and volunteers work there?
In-Kwon: There are a full-time volunteer and two part-time volunteers who teach in our computer classes. Also, sometimes, medical staff like a doctor, a nurse and physiotherapists from other organizations or other countries help our ministry from time to time. Our volunteers are all Tongans with disabilities.
Engage: What kind of facility and resources does this ministry work with?
In-Kwon: It is a two-story building with six rooms and two halls. A missionary family stays upstairs. We use the downstairs for our ministry. A big hall is used for rehabilitative therapy and the Braille course. Another small hall is used for the computer class.
Engage: What are some of the challenges this ministry or you face daily?
In-Kwon: Hopelessness is the main challenge. So far, there is no governmental policy to support people with disabilities. The community seems to look down on them. There are only a few organizations helping them. Most of them are very poor. Therefore, people with disabilities feel isolation and neglect. This circumstance leads them to lose hope.
Engage: How are you facing these challenges?
In-Kwon: “Hope to Disabled and their Families in the Love of Jesus” is our motto.
My Tongan name is “Amanaki,” which means “Hope.” My wife’s Tongan name is “Ofa,” which means “Love.” Whenever we meet children with disabilities and their parents, we encourage them not to lose hope and not to feel lonely. We keep saying to them, “You are not alone. God is with you because you are His children.” We always try to show them God’s love by serving them.
Engage: How is this ministry funded?
In-Kwon: Funds for the ministry come from several churches of the Nazarene and individuals in America, Korea, New Zealand and Australia. Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) is a good source of funds for this ministry.
Engage: How can the global Nazarene family support this ministry?
In-Kwon: Prayer is a solid foundation of our ministry. God always answers prayers. Donations and volunteering like Work & Witness teams can also help us.