May 5th is Children's Day in South Korea!
* According to South Korea's Ministry of Unification, 72% of North Korean refugees are women.
* In the history of Freedom Speakers International, 76% of our students have been women.
Freedom Speakers International is kicking off a campaign to support North Korean refugee single moms. Usually, when we mention them, people want to send toys, chocolate, or snacks to the children.
As FSI co-founder Casey Lartigue wrote in a Korea Times column last year: "One mother thankfully accepts all gifts but explained that her son loves the new toys ― for about a day. When I began to probe deeper, she and other North Korean refugee parents would talk about actual needs, such as having money for private academy classes or being able to save enough money for college."
With that in mind, we would like to encourage donors to give $10 a month as support for a North Korean refugee single mom. If you donate for a year, then that can be $120 for a mom.
We have four different moms that we discussed this with, and each was thankful to know that anyone would want to help them defray education expenses. If you donate $40 a month, that could provide support for four different North Korean refugee moms. If you donate more than that, we would equally divide it among the four moms. For now, all four moms will remain anonymous, but if this effort is successful then they are more likely to acknowledge the supporters of this campaign.
You can make it a monthly donation or all at one time.
By the way, thanks to FSI's donors, we are now strong enough to hold such a fundraiser.
