UPDATE: The deadline for applications has been pushed back to April 7.
ORIGINAL POST: Liberty in North Korea (one of my favorite organizations) has a couple of upcoming projects which might be of interest to some readers. Please note that the deadline for submissions is March 31 (today) but they may take a few late ones if you mention that you didn’t find out about it until after the 31st.
Project Sunshine
First is Project Real Sunshine; an advocacy campaign taking place this summer designed to try to make NK human rights a first-tier issue in Korea. Click here for the application (doc). Here are some of the issues they say need to be addressed:
Hundreds of thousands remain imprisoned in North Korea’s concentration camps. Thousands upon thousands of refugees remain without protection, hiding throughout China and Southeast Asia, vulnerable to trafficking or repatriation. The Chinese-born children of North Korean refugees starve on the streets and are unable to find work and receive medical care or education. Thousands of North Korean refugees resettled in South Korea are also unable to find or hold jobs and report feeling “hopeless” and “alone.”
Some of the volunteer positions(pdf) they are looking to fill include translators, artists, videographers, photographers, spokespersons and support staff. The positions are open to people from around the world as long as they can be in Korea this summer.
With the change of staff at the Blue House and the upcoming turnover of seats in the National Assembly, positions on North Korea will be less ‘hardened’ than during LiNKs previous effort in 2006. It is possible for this summer’s LiNK project to be a tipping point on the view of NK human rights here.
Chollima Leadership Program
LiNK’s other project this summer is the Chollima Leadership Program, something I think could be even more important in the long term (from a program flyer):
The program’s purpose is to invest in the future of North Korea and empower North Korean defectors by helping them improve skills for leadership, organization-building and advocacy for the rights of North Koreans so that they may use these skills to benefit their country when North Korea opens its doors.
If you happen to know any NK defectors who would be a good candidate for this program, please email jane@linkglobal.org . Once again, the deadline is March 31 but they will consider late (but not too late) applications.
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4 Comments
Why would they denominate this the “Chollima” Leadership Program — “Chollima” being redolent of the Chollima Movement, the North Korean variant of The Great Leap Forward when collectivization of agriculkture was effectively completed?
Good question. Perhaps they got the name from one of their North Korean members or maybe they wanted to use a term that would be familiar with the defectors.
Andy, do you know if Link still has weekly meetings in Itaewon? Where and when?
I asked that same question.
They have changed their organizational structure and no longer have regular meetings for their Seoul branch. I believe (but am not sure) that their Korean members here have formed a parallel organization which does most of the work that the old volunteer organization did.
I will try to find out more, including how someone can help them out.
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