By Miri Cha | Education Team Senior Program Manager
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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