Sharon first joined Freedom Speakers International in March 2015 as a student and speaker. She contacted me on her birthday. So that means I was a wonderful birthday gift for her.
I believe she joined us as a part-time staffer in 2018. She is now working full-time as an accountant with FSI. She has joined every program in FSI history--studying history, public speaking, career development, and she is now our North Korean Refugee Keynote Speaker Network.
I had a special reason to buy her flowers, and it isn't only because she bought me lunch last week when I insisted that she not do so. It also isn't because she calls me "Sir." But those things also help.
Here's her fundraiser for FSI.
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Last week, Hope joined us as a volunteer staffer in the office. She is always ready to help out. Her first couple of days I was throwing all kinds of editing assignments at her, and she was throwing them right back to me without complaint. Her first day at the office, within five minutes, she was joining a (rare) staff meeting that I had called.
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Brooke originally joined FSI as an English language tutor back when we were TNKR. This time around, she returned to South Korea joining us as an intern. She will continue volunteering with us even after her term officially expires.
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We have one more office volunteer, a translator, who so far has somehow evaded taking a photo with me. She is one of my former students at the Seoul University of Foreign Studies, I will be sure to catch her the next time she is in the office.
Plus, Songmi Han wasn't in that day.
Human Resources Manager Daniel Cashmar has a day job.
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* Has paid staff.
* An office to have volunteers and staff.
* Enough money for a deposit and to pay the rent every month.
Some donors want their money to only go into programming, which is a nice thought, but that would be like a construction company saying they only wanted to pay for shovels, but not the workers to move the shovels.