By Joanna Hosaniak and Michele Sonen | Program leader and staff
Last November, we delivered some happy news about one of our former students, Sungju. He had been invited to participate in a special 6-month internship program in Canada where he interned for a Member of the Canadian Parliament.
Sungju returned from Canada early this year with the strong resolve to give back and help North Korean refugees in need of urgent assistance, like he was once. He stepped up to help our organization's rescue team raise funds to rescue North Korean refugees at risk of being repatriated or trafficked in China. “Rescuing North Korean refugees is a great way to defend universal human rights and build a stable foundation for the coming reunification of North and South Korea,” said Sungju. “In order to elicit interest and increase awareness of our rescue efforts among Korean-Canadian communities, a refugee rescue activist and I visited Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Regina to give lectures about the situation in North Korea and raise funds for the rescue operations.”
After coming back from that trip, one more milestone awaited Sungju. He received a Chevening Scholarship from the UK Government to attend graduate school for his master’s degree in the United Kingdom, starting this Fall. Happy to send him on another journey to continue his education, and confident that Sungju will play a very important role in the future of North Korean human rights, Citizens’ Alliance granted him a USD 2,000 scholarship (half of which was supported by donations to Global Giving) to help with his studies in a foreign country.
Back in North Korea, Sungju lived on the street, eating whatever food he could find on the ground. His only dream was to find something to eat and survive another day. Today, Sungju dreams of a Unified Korea and the role he can play during that process. Sungju—like many other North Korean children resettling in South Korea—is able to dream those important dreams thanks to your warm support. Many of the children supported by Global Giving are successfully adjusting to their new lives in South Korea and giving back to others in need, as they, too, were in need not so long ago.
In this season of giving thanks, the staff of Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights would like to sincerely thank you for your support this year. We wish you a warm and joyful Thanksgiving!
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