 |
By Casey Lartigue Jr.
It is usually a lovely moment when a questioner approaches the microphone and asks, almost apologetically, "How can I help?"
It is a simple but not easy question to answer when the topic is North Korea. In the many North Korea-related events I have moderated, organized and spoken at since September 2011, I don't recall ever witnessing a questioner who was satisfied with the response to the question about how others can help. This year, I expect to participate in at least 70 events with North Korean refugees around the world (Switzerland is the next big event on my schedule) and expect that questioners won't be satisfied with the answer.
I've read articles and studies with detailed suggestions about how others can help, watched speeches, and talked with diplomats, analysts, experts, leaders of NGOs, North Korean refugees, and long-time North Korea watchers (some have watched it for decades and some lived there). They have a range of suggestions and can't even convince each other.
I heard the question so often that my organization held three different English speech contests with more than 20 different North Korean refugees answering the question. I wanted them to think through their answers instead of answering off-the-cuff at the end of an event. I have organized numerous brainstorming sessions with potential volunteers around the world about how they could get involved. We set up a "How to help North Koreans" project with North Korean refugees working with volunteers around the world.
I now see the question of how to help as a meeting of people who have a mission or purpose with uncommitted newcomers looking for a quick answer to a complicated situation.
Lee Eun-koo, co-founder with me of Freedom Speakers International (FSI) says she believed from a young age it was her mission to contribute to Korea's unification. After she earned a master's degree in North Korean studies from Ewha Woman's University, she was hired by an NGO to interview North Korean refugees about human rights violations they had suffered in North Korea or China. On weekends, she visited the Hanawon resettlement center to interview North Korean refugees who had recently escaped to freedom. She became the lead researcher at an NGO writing and editing White Papers about North Korea.
When she realized that she needed English to be a more effective researcher and practitioner of unification, she studied abroad in the UK and eventually earned a master's degree in North Korean studies from Sheffield University. She returned to South Korea to work in policy and research at a huge government agency.
She admits she got a bit bored working as a researcher, she wanted to do something more practical. At that point, she met me and in 2013 we co-founded what has become FSI. Since then, about 500 North Korean refugees have studied English, public speaking and career development with about 1,200 volunteers who joined us from around the world.
She is a practitioner and an academic who has spent almost two decades doing intense study and work about North Korea. She is now getting a Ph.D. in international relations with a focus on North Korea and looks forward to one day setting up a non-profit organization in Pyongyang to aid North Koreans after unification. What kind of simple explanation could she give to people asking for a shortcut answer to the simple yet big "How can I help" question about North Korea?
On the other hand, a very close friend who donated $1,000 to us at a time we were struggling financially bluntly explained that he lacks time to get deeply involved. Others like him who don't receive a simple answer are likely to find a different cause fitting their limited time and short-term commitment. They may care about North Koreans, but not care enough to make a commitment to do anything about them.
Those questioners who do have time are asking others how to help because they haven't found a mission for themselves. People without a mission passing through North Korea discussions can end up frustrated when they hear multi-level answers about a complicated geopolitical situation seven decades long involving a reclusive gangster regime armed with nukes.
Two years ago I wrote a five-step self-help guide so people could find their own way to help. I have since learned five steps was four too many.
From now, when the lovely moment comes with people asking how they can help, I will advise them to focus on step three of my self-help guide: fundraising and donating. It may not feel like a lovely response to the question "How can I help," but for people with no mission, who have limited time, and can't make a commitment, that is the best way to help.
Casey Lartigue Jr. (CJL@alumni.harvard.edu) is co-founder with Lee Eun-koo of Freedom Speakers International (FSI) and co-author with Han Song-mi of the book "Greenlight to Freedom."
