Education South Korea Project #14657

Learning Freedom: Help Educate North Korean Youth

by Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights

Learning Freedom: Help Educate North Korean Youth

Project Report | Mar 27, 2023
Learn to Love, Love to Learn

By Miri Cha | Education Team Senior Program Manager

“Ms.Cha, how do I become a donor of NKHR?”

It was a question asked by two students who finished their first month of full-time work after graduating from the university. They followed, “I wish I could donate a fortune, but I would like to start donating at least $10 every month so the newly coming students from North Korea can adjust to South Korea as well as I did”.

I met them 8 years ago at Hanawon, the Ministry of Unification affiliated settlement support center for the defected North Koreans, when they were high school students. At the time, they were intimidated and overwhelmed by the fact that they had to adjust to new environments where they did not know much about. They were also making decisions based on what others said instead of what they really wanted.

However, they slowly changed as they participated in NKHR’s educational programs for youth and university students. As NKHR shared their experiences in the beginning of their arrival, it was necessary to precisely design student-oriented educational projects so they can love learning and make decisions based on their own desire rather than based on the other’s.

One day, Min, one of the students who asked how to become a donor of NKHR, said he would not continue his education after graduating high school. It raised concern to me, because he said he will apply for the university a month ago. As we talked more, he said it because all of his cousins told him it's better for him to start working instead of continuing his education. Even though he wanted to continue his education to explore more and learn more, he doubted his decision because everyone in his family told him his decision was a waste of time and money. He finally decided to continue his education after several conversations with me. He said “I would have regretted it if I didn’t attend the university” at the end of his freshman year.

Four years later, Min became a donor of NKHR with his friends who participated in NKHR’s educational program to share the love with others. He said it's only the beginning. He added, he will start his own company and will donate and give scholarships to not only the defected North Korean students resettled in South Korea but to the younger generations who are in need of this society as he received scholarships from the generous donor who supported him throughout his undergraduate years.

He is on his way to make his dream come true.

The students and NKHR staff met as teachers and students, but we teach each other how to love learning and learn and to share the love to others. Please support us to share the happiness and warmth of sharing the love we learned and to share the love of learning.

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Nov 28, 2022
WE are the next leaders!

By Miri Cha | Education Team Senior Program Manager

Students having a discussion

NKHR concentrates its educational projects to empower the defected North Korean students for the future unification of the Korean peninsula along with strengthening their foundational learning skills. NKHR mostly designs the recipients of the empowerment projects to be both students from North and South Korea because unification cannot be done by one side of Korea. We value the young generation to have balanced perspectives and learn to respect the differences of each other.

One of NKHR’s recent projects Na-Neoul, the abbreviation of ‘I-You-Us’ in Korean language, aims to build a small unified community where students learn how to discuss logically and to respect diversity. The defected North Korean and South Korean university students had monthly meetings and had discussion on various topics such as disability, potlicis, community and civilization.

This project was first launched as a three-year long project. The first year focused on how ‘I’ sense the world differently with the five senses of human. It continued the following year with the topic on ‘I’ and ‘You’, discussing the development of communication. In the last year, it concentrated on the relationship between the community and us. More specifically, how our individuals as a part of our community make it better by reading a book and having a discussion about different topics such as civilization, community, politics and disabilities.

NKHR staff members supported this program by helping students to lead each month’s discussions. Sometimes they invited special speakers related to the topic of the book, visited exhibitions, or went to summer camp.

“The biggest advantage of Na-Neoul is that students from North and South Korea are divided into small groups and participate in discussions together. We all are from different backgrounds and have different experiences. I think it enriches our discussion and we really do learn from each other and respect each other’s opinions.”

- the participating defected North Korean student Y

“Sometimes I feel jealous of students who articulate their thoughts clearly, but I’ve learned a lot from them. It was an unforgettable experience for me to work hard for our team’s presentation. I’m sure it was the most meaningful experience for me before graduation.”

- the participating defected North Korean student D

When it comes to the unification of the Korean peninsula, citizens of unified Korea will have endless discussions from small daily choices to the important national decisions. However, if the young generation from North Korea lacks the experience of articulating their thoughts and opinions logically, the negative result can be predicted. Therefore, it is important that Na-Neoul aims to empower the young defected North Koreans to be able to express their thoughts and opinions logically about every aspect of the community. Therefore each sub topic of the project is not limited to the unification but about our community in general to continuously practice persuading others who have different opinions.

“Na-Neoul has changed me a lot. My perceptions of North Korean students changed greatly and it really eased my stereotypes of them. We are different in some ways but we can communicate sincerely and become friends. It was also great to discuss current issues and to find out the solutions.”

- the participating South Korean student B

NKHR education team runs different educational programs to empower the defected North Korean students. Check out our Instagram @nkhr_edu to find out more about other projects!

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Aug 2, 2022
A Journey to find my future

By Miri Cha | Education Team Senior Program Manager

Group photo after the session

Everyone would have asked themselves one of the following questions when they were teenagers.

‘What am I going to do in the future?’

‘What am I good at?’

‘Why do I need to study?’

Someone might find their own answer to these questions by exploring a number of different things, continuously questioning themselves, organizing their thoughts, strengths and weaknesses. The answers each of us found might be different, but there is one thing in common -- a person who we can share our questions and concerns with.

However, not everyone is lucky to have someone who takes the questions and concerns of the teenagers seriously.

This was the starting point of this year’s Career Path Finding project of NKHR. The session of the project concentrated on understanding who I am and how to design their future.

The session concentrated 1) to understand what the ‘perspective’ is, 2) to make a vision board to find what my dreams are 3) to find my strengths and weaknesses 4) to understand what the occupational values are and what they value the most among them.

It was quite hard for the students to make the abstract ideas and thoughts into the visual materials in the beginning since the thinking process was unfamiliar to them.

“To be honest, in the beginning, I didn’t see the need to change my thoughts and dreams into visual materials. However, I felt the impact of it throughout the sessions and now I can actually visualize how I want my future to be rather than simply imagining it -- making the vision board was a great help to it. I wouldn’t say my career road map is crystal clear yet, but I believe it will be soon.”

“One of the things I liked the most was interacting with each other and the teachers. It wasn’t easy for me to communicate in depth with the teachers at school since there were a lot of the students. However, even though my Korean is not good enough, the teachers always waited for me to deliver my thoughts. I could think again about how I see the world, and how it can change depending on how I see it.”

The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai quotes “One child, one pencil, one teacher and one book can change the world”. The generous support of GlobalGiving donors make this possible! Your support specifically allows us to buy academic materials such as markers, notebooks, books to support the dreams of students!

Check our instragram for more stories of the projects: @nkhr_edu

A student explaining his 'Dream Tree'

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