I
joined a TNKR class yesterday with a refugee who has gone from putting her head
on her desk so she could avoid interacting with me to now initiating a
conversation with me.
One of the key main things we are hearing from refugees is
that they gain confidence from talking with TNKR tutors 1 to 1. In classroom
situations they get lost in the shuffle, they lack the confidence to try to
speak.
She and Christine Kim are now studying together twice a week.
H ave you ever engaged in action not because you were sure it would change the world, but to satisfy your own heart? That, I emailed to an American friend, is why I have joined the effort to help North Koreans who are trying to escape from their homeland. I can’t change the direction of policy in North Korea or China but I can row the boat I am sitting in rather than lamenting that I can’t steer the yachts somewhere else. So I have tried to do what I can: Attending protests in front of the Chinese embassy in Seoul (and I plan to do so when I visit America in April); donating money to the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights ( www.nkhumanrights.or.kr ); educating myself, writing articles and emailing friends; and, as a member of the board of trustees, I recently submitted a resolution to the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association (FDMHA) in Washington, D.C., to try to call attention to the plight of North Koreans. Our organization’s missi...


