She escaped to South Korea 10 months ago. She recently found out about TNKR, and she is so eager to join us! Sometimes I am amazed because there are bigger NGOs with actual budgets, I've heard that there are government programs to help refugees adjust.
When refugees come to us, they are enthusiastic. In some cases they wonder why no one told them about TNKR sooner (one young lady who arrived in South Korea when we first started wished that someone had told her as she had arrived). I take it as a good sign that we have developed a high quality program despite having very limited resources (we rely on volunteer tutors and donations from anyone).
Sometimes people ask me what we would do if we had more money. Expand!!!
We hate checking, the last time Eunkoo looked at the waiting list, we had 90 names on it. The young lady who visited our office today is at the end of the line. Because of another commitment, she can't study during the day. We rely on volunteers so we can't extend our hours very much. And even if we did, we would still have the issue of a lack of rooms for people to study at our office. Then there's the issue of quality control, because we want to get to know the refugees and tutors somewhat, and also make sure the focus remains on studying, not hanging out. And Skype... we avoid it because of too many bad experiences (canceled classes, bad Internet connections, tutors being unlikely to submit reports and pretty much ignoring us), so don't bother asking, thank you!
My Kakao is constantly lit up like the White House Christmas tree in December. Not only am I observing and occasionally participating in many discussions between refugees and tutors in our program, but I also have many refugees on the waiting list reminding me that they are waiting!
Some want to come by to visit, to thank us for the program, to find out if they can get in earlier. The young lady who came to visit sent me a Kakao after our meeting telling me that I'm "brilliant." She may have learned the word or she may have done a translation.
Mr. Brilliant is trying to figure out how to handle this problem. We are having an International Open House tomorrow, so you can bring your brilliant ideas! 


