First Steps

All proceeds from our concert, "DoYou Dream," will be donated to First Steps.
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First Steps (FS) is a Vancouver-based Christian humanitarian organization with the purpose of preventing childhood malnutrition in DPRK (North Korea) through programs which provide essential nutrients to young children. FS is addressing immediate malnutrition and hunger issues by providing supplemental nutrition while it is providing the necessary equipment and training to build self-sufficient and healthier communities.

History: First Steps’ founding director Susan Ritchie was deeply moved by the plight of the children she saw as the interpreter for a Canadian government delegation that travelled to North Korea in 2000. She started FS with the help of church friends and FS became a registered charity in 2001. Since then, the FS’ involvement has expanded to provide soymilk to more than 70,000 children daily using VitaCow and VitaGoat machines - highly energy-efficient pressure cookers that process soybeans into nutrient-rich soymilk. Furthermore, in the spring of 2007, the FS started the Sprinkles program, a revolutionary micro-nutrient sachet. A single sachet of Sprinkles in diet combats anemia in women and many childhood afflictions associated with malnutrition. Since First Steps is an almost all-volunteer organization, counting only two part-time paid positions, they have consistently been able to place more than 90 percent of donations directly into programs.

North Korea, with a population of about 23 million, has suffered acute food shortages for more than a decade. United Nations and World Food Programme reports show that between two and three million North Korean children (infants to age five) suffer from stunted growth.


First Steps …
- provides nutritious soymilk to more than 70,000 hungry children daily
- has reduced malnutrition rate of pregnant women and lactating women from 56% to 32% in six months with Sprinkles
- has fundraised and contributed more than $500,000 in their food programs in year 2007
- has supplied more than 3.5 million sachets of Sprinkles and provided necessary nutrition to 35,000 babies and 37,000 pregnant and nursing women