Skip to main content

TNKR's most popular Website page

TNKR's most popular Website page

That's right, the most popular page on TNKR's Website is.... the budget page!

Yes, boring budget information is what people click on the most, even faster than refugee testimonials. If every person who checked the budget page became a monthly donor of at least $5 a month, then TNKR would already be financially sustainable!

Here's our 2019 audited budget information, as translated by staffer Young-Ah Kim. You can also see the history of our budget from 2015-2019. Knowing how interested people are in budget issues, we started posting this information even before we became an official organization.
https://lovetnkr.org/tnkr-budget/

One thing is clear: TNKR is winning! Every day we hear about success stories from students and volunteers. This morning's inspiring messages are from two TNKR students who passed the first round in a competitive scholarship competition. They said they never would have had a chance without TNKR being with them. They will visit next week to discuss the next round.

We naturally focus on the refugees, but TNKR has had a profound impact on many volunteers. That's why, despite our focus on transparency, protecting refugee privacy, and focusing on education rather than socializing, we still have many volunteers come to us and those who are in South Korea will come long distances to tutor. The latest: An applicant from Jeju!

This morning's inspiring message from a volunteer comes from long-term volunteer tutor and monthly donor Kim Goldsmith. She tutored a refugee last night at the TNKR office. She wrote the following about it:

"I have been tutoring (E) in Track 1 since October 2019. She is so fun to teach, due to her love of children's stories. Each week she comes prepared to retell a fairy tale, folk tale, or Disney story she has found on the Internet, as a unique way of learning English. I can't help but smile when (E) pours hear heart and soul into recounting the tales, even on a day when my two hour commute to Seoul from work has almost gotten the best of me. (E)'s perseverance, positive attitude, and enthusiasm to study English, even after a long day or when she isn't feeling well is inspirational.  Working with (E) has reconnected me to childhood stories  I have long forgotten and showed me how timeless tails can connect two people from very different worlds."

Yes! TNKR is winning! Students are learning in ways they enjoy and that empowers them, volunteers are having great experiences tutoring and mentoring, we are now starting a project getting refugees prepared for employment and education opportunities, and we even have a popular budget page that has the potential to match our great project.

Regards,

Casey Lartigue Jr.
International Director
Teach North Korean Refugees
http://l.ead.me/casey (follow me on Social Media)


Kim's student picked a few more children's books to study. The books were donated to TNKR a few months ago.


They were studying, but took a break long enough for me to get a photo.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Obama debating Keyes, 2004, education excerpt

PONCE : Thank you. Let's move to the question of education. Mr. Obama, you've said that you consider education as the most important civil rights issue facing America today. Currently, your children are in private schools. If you're elected to the Senate, will you send them to public schools? OBAMA: Well, my children currently go to the lab school at the University of Chicago where I teach, and my wife works, and we get a good deal for it. But, so - - (laughter, applause) OBAMA: - -it depends on whether we move or not. And that, obviously, hinges on the election and what's gonna happen. We're gonna choose the best possible education for our children, as I suspect all parents are gonna try to do. And that's part of the reason why, consistently when I've been in the state legislature, I've tried to promote those kinds of reforms that would improve what I think is an inadequate performance by too many public schools, all across the state. PONCE : But yo...
Read more

Marshall Fritz passed away

I got a note in my e-mail that Marshall Fritz of the Alliance for the Separation of School and State passed away on election day. I met Fritz several years ago when I was at the Cato Institute. He was there to lecture us for not being libertarian enough. We went at it a little and e-mailed occasionally after that. After he read one of my studies and some of my articles he wrote me a very kind e-mail telling me what a great writer and thinker I was. His one regret is that I was wrong in accepting that there was a legitimate role for government in education. CJL Dear Friends of the Alliance: Marshall Fritz passed away Tuesday, November 4, 2008, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Marshall was a true friend and mentor. That's what he's been to me. Even during the last days of his life, when I was privileged to spend some time with him, he set an example of a life well-lived and considered. Like a good teacher, he always showed his love for people by not letting us get away with...
Read more

Rating the 10 Magazine speakers

I attended another 10 Magazine speech organized by Barry Welsh. Here are my unofficial grades for the speakers I have heard so far: 1) Shin Dong Hyuk (A+) : The audience was captivated. A few ladies were in tears as he discussed his escape from North Korea, his adjustment to living in South Korea, his difficulty at enjoying life. I first met Shin shortly before the best-selling book (Escape from Camp 14) in America about him was published, and was a bit surprised when he recognized me at an event and struck up a conversation with me even though he is so shy. Even though I was already familiar with his story, it was still great to hear it first hand in an informal setting. I threw a curveball at him, mentioning that that some people have doubted the veracity of his story. He took it in stride. After escaping from a prison camp in North Korea, I guess that there aren't many things that could rattle him. Shin, Lartigue 2) Michael Breen (A): An outstanding mix of humo...
Read more

"Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?" --Lord Byron

Frederick Douglass loved that quote. Booker T. Washington would say it sometimes, too. I recently met two women from North Korea. That's right, that North Korea. I asked them many questions but held back somewhat. I suppose they still must be careful and I don't want them to think I'm a spy. Hey, I used to be a host on black talk radio, I was accused of many things then. Plus, if North Koreans are trying to track those folks down I suppose the last thing they'd want would be to have their photos posted on a blog. At some point I will write about meeting those ladies. * * * Yesterday I got interviewed by a Korean reporter about various political and social issues. After I confirm that my interview made it past the station's producers then I'll post the info here. CJL
Read more

What if...

According to both English language papers in Korea: 2 of 3 Men Feel Urge to Flee From Home . A poll by online recruiter Career said 66 percent of working men in their 30s and older have felt the urge to flee from their homes and escape today's reality in the past year due to suffocating economic difficulties. Forty-something men turned out to have the strongest desire to run away with more than 72 percent of them saying they wanted to take off, while men in their 30s followed next with 64 percent. 1) What percentage are actually leaving? 2) The survey I want to see is: what percent of their wives would like to see them leave. * * * What if....Jon Huer actually made a point? Regular Korea Times contributor Jon Huer has some haters . I don't count myself among them yet. In the three weeks I have been reading his columns I find myself wondering why (1) he bothered to write (2) I bothered to read. Writers typically write to motivate readers, to inform them, or to get them to ch...
Read more