North Korean Mothers Need Your Help!

When I first heard about Yeonmi Park and her struggle to get to South Korea with her mother, I was very moved. She faced extreme challenges and did everything she could to escape North Korea. I learned that the Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR) nonprofit organization was responsible for teaching her English and helping her pursue her dream of going to school in the U.S. They've also helped other refugees from North Korea write books and contribute positively to the world. A lot of the refugees now are mothers who just want to live a good life and help their children grow up in a free society. So, I decided to get involved as a teacher who teaches English to these mothers.

Without organizations like this, brave refugees from North Korea would not have the opportunity to learn English and pursue their dreams. Therefore, please consider partnering with me and supporting the organization with the funds needed to continue to support the refugees who have risked their lives to come to South Korea and start again. Every little bit counts and I believe it is our duty to support others who are not as fortunate as we are with anything that we can possibly give. The gifts are tax-deductible. :)

Thank you for reading this! To stay updated with the organization, please go to http://teachnorthkoreanrefugees.org/. If you can, share this with your friends to give them the opportunity to give as well. Again, every little bit counts!

Love,

Hyemi

P.S. To hear Yeonmi Park's TEDx talk and her story, please go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg3kC4uKDJU

(Donations can be accepted, although this project is now on hold. It received an A-rating from Seoul City Hall, but the response from refugees wasn't strong enough for us to seek a second grant).

According to South Korea's Ministry of Unification, more than 31,000 North Korean refugees have escaped to South Korea since the late 1990s. Overall, 71 percent of them are females, and the trend is even higher. In 2017, about 83 percent of them who arrived in South Korea are females. As has been reported by various reporters and organizations, many of them were victims of sex trafficking or sold as wives in China as they were escaping to freedom.

In addition to the challenges they have as immigrants to a new country and as women settling in a new male-dominated society, those who are mothers have children they brought from North Korea or China, or had after arriving in South Korea. Like mothers everywhere, they focus on their children, making them the priority rather than developing themselves.

For a few years now, TNKR has been considering ways to help North Korean refugee mothers who would sometimes drop out of our program because of childcare issues.

We recently received a grant for our proposal to set up a project offering Skype tutoring for North Korean refugee mothers who cannot easily commute for face-to-face tutoring in English. The grant is good for three months, we would like to raise more funding for this project to keep it going in the future and to also provide some support for TNKR to administer this project (all of the grant money is going directly to the program, meaning the program cannot continue beyond the current three-month allocation).

If we can keep this project going, we would like to expand it so that the project can also support occasional face-to-face tutoring sessions by tutors who can visit refugees near their homes. We have other additions in mind that could continue providing support for North Korean refugee mothers adjusting to living in South Korea while also raising their children.