School teacher Min Pong Gi, his wife Ri Kum Pok a farmer and their three sons fled their home in terror as the heavy rains tore down the rooms one by one during the severe floods that hit North Korea in early August.

Living in a small rural township near P'yongsan City North Hwanghae Province, the family described how they felt as they saw their home, crops and possessions being destroyed.

"We were very scared" Ri Kum Pok explained. "When the rains started on the 7 August they were so heavy so quickly, but we tried to stay in our house for as long as we could and only left long enough to move some of our belongings and furniture to a safe place."

However by 7.30 the following morning the family could no longer continue to remain in the house and had to quickly grab whatever they could get their hands on and race from the building, as one-by-one their rooms started to cave in beginning with the kitchen.

The couple and their sons Min Gyong Chol (13), Min Gyong Ham (10) and Min Gyong Chan (7) frantically sought temporary shelter close to the school where their father Min Pong Gi teaches sport.

As the water eventually began to subside the family were finally able to witness the devastation the strong winds and rains had left behind. The house itself had been reduced to rubble and their remaining possessions had been ruined. As many homes are made from mud and not concrete in DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), the home was not able to withstand the onslaught and eventually the entire building was washed away.

Not only had many of their crops also been destroyed but some livestock too, and as the family's eldest son Min Gyong Chol shyly plays with his t-shirt, he explains how he is still sick and suffering from diarrhea caused by lack of access to clean water.

The family had tried to find medicine in the local market to help ease his pain but this made little difference as a shortage of medicines and healthcare is also a problem for the country.

This one family's story in North Korea highlights just some of the key issues that are affecting the country at this time. Including ongoing health problems caused by the disaster, which has left many people suffering from broken bones and head injuries as buildings collapsed on top of people, respiratory and stomach problems brought on by exposure to the cold weather while living in temporary shelter and lack of access to food and clean, safe water.

In a meeting between World Vision and The Red Cross in P'yong-yang during a recent World Vision delegation visit to the country, Jaap Timmer from The Red Cross reported that 30% of the health infrastructure in DPRK has been affected as buildings have also been ruined and medicines damaged.

In response to the DPRK government's international appeal for medicines, the three person World Vision delegation team including Regional HEA Director Richard Rumsey and WV DPRK National Director Victor Hsu were able to visit the country from 8-13 September and as part of their visit deliver 12 boxes of initial medicine supplies to two hospitals on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 September, including paracetamol and saline solution.

These medicines which will also be used by the city hospital close to where the Min Pong Gi and his family live, are just the first of more supplies to be distributed from a World Vision chartered flight from Singapore and will be used particularly to address some of the many illnesses children face in the aftermath of one of the worst floods the country has seen, now over a month ago.

The team, who also conducted assessments to identify the current and long term needs faced by communities in DPRK, were also able to visit the warehouse where the medicines carried in by the Singapore plane on Saturday 8 September are stored at the Ministry of Health in capital P'yongyang.

These initial medicines for P'yon-song City Hospital and P'yong-son City Hospital will have a direct impact on enabling doctors to provide the essential care needed.

President of P'yong-song Hospital Mr Rim Hyon Kim said, ''We wish to thank World Vision for the medicines they have provided and we will use these to especially care for children."

An earlier distribution of 2,000 of the 3,000 vaccines provided by World Vision for Diphtheria and Tetanus have been distributed by government officials on World Vision's behalf on the 2 September to the four counties Sinyang, Yamcho, Mengsang and Dochang in the province of P'yon-gan, 500 doses to each county. Another 1,000 are being reserved for future need.

In total, a reported 960,000 people have been directly affected by some of the worst flooding the country has experienced and they are in urgent need of emergency assistance: shelter, food, health and water-sanitation. By the end of August, it was established that 170,000 are homeless and that as many as 963 people are feared dead or missing.

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For more information, photos or interviews please contact World Vision Asia Pacific Communications Manager Andrea Russell on andrea_russell@wvi.org or +91 9989 238 223.