Help LiNK win $250,000 from Pepsi to aid North Korean refugees

Do so by going here.

LiNK (acronym for Liberty in North Korea) is an organization dedicated to assisting people who have escaped the cruel conditions of the DPRK:

LiNK's work focuses on awareness through mobilizing the grassroots and telling stories of hope. We advocate for the North Koreans, while working with refugees through shelters in China and Southeast Asia-protecting, educating, and assisting them to eventually find freedom and live new lives.

Below is information LiNK provides regarding what they hope to do with the money if they win:

Here’s some information about our project idea: Liberty House. Since the passage of the North Korean Human Rights act in 2004, almost 100 North Korean refugees have resettled here in the US, all over the country. LiNK has helped to resettle fifteen of these refugees and has sought to provide them with supplementary assistance (scholarships, financial aid, tutoring, mentoring, community, etc). With the launch of our recent campaign over the holidays, TheHundred, we anticipate many more refugees making it here to the US over the next year. We have had the tremendous privilege to see refugees as young as 14 and as old as 65 settle down and begin new lives; a couple finally married after waiting years in the underground; two babies born here who are now American citizens; a young woman already in community college studying to be a counselor for other North Korean women who were also sexually trafficked. Although learning a new language and culture are difficult, they are resilient, hard-working and determined to take on this new opportunity. Through our extensive research surveying refugees who have resettled both in the US and in Korea, and observing resettlement centers in South Korea (including Hanawon and other agencies), we realize that the assistance they receive from the government is often not enough. We are taking those learnings to create a unique program here in the US to help refugees acculturate and succeed in their new lives. With this grant we will be able to launch a transitional home that will serve as a safe environment and community for these refugees as they learn English, American culture and history, how to use an ATM and sign-up for a grocery card, apply for their citizenship and find a job, and eventually gain independence to successfully live on their own. We have many of the partnerships already in place - but we lack the funding to move forward.

What follows is a video from LiNK that provides more detail about their plans:


According to Joshua Stanton, the extremely dedicated soul who runs the highly informative One Free Korea blog about North Korea, this group is perpetually low on funds for the important work that they do, so a quarter million dollars could go a long way toward setting up a Hanawon-esque facility to help the increasing number of North Korean refugees who end up in the United States.

So vote now. Vote early, vote often (seriously, you can vote every day).