Campus News

LiNK and Bethel come face-to-face

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Members from LiNK headquarters are traveling from Cali to Bethel. On Thursday Oct. 28, LiNK members are sharing a documentary screening on North Korean refugees in China. The film will be showing in AC 342 at 8 p.m. “I'm really excited for the Bethel community to have the opportunity to inform themselves on what is happening on the border of China and North Korea, “ said senior Brittany Replogle, co-starter of Bethel’s LiNK chapter. “I think it will open up a completely new mission field, and help us spread the word about what we can do to help this cause.” Why is LiNK coming here? A team of LiNK nomads travel the U.S. informing people of the ongoing issues in North Korea. Nomads ask students to get involved by forming their own LiNK chapters and by fundraising at their schools for the escaped refugees. LiNK is a non-profit organization based in California that seeks to raise awareness of and funds for the human rights and humanitarian injustices in North Korea. Kim Jong-il has been calling the shots as dictator in North Korea for the past sixteen years. Under his centralized communist regime, nearly one-third of the population is undernourished. Under his regime, there is no freedom of religion and individual thought is prohibited and punished. Under his regime, hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled North Korea to neighboring countries. What happens to those who make it out alive and aren’t sold into human trafficking? For some refugees, LiNK happens. “I went to watch the documentary last year, and I remember feeling completely disturbed,” recalls Replogle. “Watching other people hurt and live a life of fear and oppression made me feel so guilty sitting in a nice classroom with a full belly and a sure place to sleep. Something started stirring inside me and I decided that it was time to make a difference.” Imagine a home without freedom. Imagine a place where mass amounts of people are stripped of their basic human rights on a daily basis - where murder, extermination, enslavement, imprisonment, torture, rape/sexual slavery/enforced prostitution, persecution are commonplace. Imagine being banned from speaking and writing and gathering openly. Imagine concentration camps as punishment for upsetting the government. It has been called the North Korea crisis. ___ http://www.linkglobal.org
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