Students Support Efforts to Aid North Korean Refugees

Trinity students have a heart for service whether that service involves tutoring children at a local after-school program or traveling to Haiti to build homes for earthquake victims.

While travel to places that need aid is not always possible, help can be offered through events on campus that raise awareness and funds for hurting people around the world. One such initiative involves student support of the organization LiNK, Liberty in North Korea. The organization works to rescue North Korean refugees in China as well as help with resettlement and raising awareness.

Raising awareness is an area in which various student groups at Trinity have been active, especially over the past year.

Nikki Ferreria ’13 of Orland Park, Illinois, co-president of Trinity’s Asian American Alliance (AAA), began her involvement with LiNK during her freshman year in 2009. She said former classmate Sharon Chun ’11 and alumnus Aaron Roh ’06 have gone on to serve the organization as “nomads,” visiting campuses around the country to inform more students and encourage involvement. Chun spoke to students at Trinity about LiNK and how they could help.

Students and groups such as AAA, Academic Initiative, Social Justice Chapter, Historical Association of Students, and Law and Politics Society held various fundraisers, screened informative documentaries, and partnered with a local South Korean church to raise money for the cause.

The latter effort, which Ferreria was instrumental in arranging with the church, raised $2,500 to help rescue one refugee. The students raised $1,038 of that total.

“I hope that this is a cause that Trinity as a campus can continue on supporting,” said Ferreria. “I believe that we have to speak for those who don’t have a voice and fight for freedom and justice.”