Eleven years ago, on March 3, 2013, FSI began activities with a language matching session. Many things have changed, including the organization's name to Freedom Speakers International (FSI).
* Organization: We had our first Language Matching session in a room at a TOZ Business Center. Eunkoo and I split the cost of hosting 12 people at a TOZ room for two hours (probably 60,000 won, $50). We didn't have an office, organization, budget, phone, website, dreams, or plans.
Fast-forward 12 years--struggling much of those early years--FSI is now an official organization in two different countries. People who see us now take it for granted, but relying on volunteers and fans meant we would take the long, slow route.
- March 3, 2013, held our first Language Matching session.
- Late 2014 or early 2015, became an association, the lowest possible status.
- July 8, 2016, moved into our first office.
- July 19, 2016, Recognized by Seoul City Hall as an official organization
- December 31, 2018, Approved by the Ministry of Finance for higher tax deduction status, meaning individual (but not business) donors can receive tax deductions for donations.
- July 2019, approved for 501(c)3 tax status by the US Internal Revenue Service
- February 29, 2020, FSI held its 100th Language Matching session.
- March 2020, relocated to the Sangsu-dong area of Seoul.
- October 2020, began discussing internally about changes to the organization.
- January 2021, began the process of changing the organization's name to Freedom Speakers International.
- December 2022, became incorporated at the highest level with South Korea's Ministry of Unification.
* Participation: We have had more than 600 North Korean refugees study with more than 1,200 tutors, coaches and mentors in more than 120 "Matching" sessions.
* Refugee achievements: Several North Korean refugees who have
studied in the organization have published books, given TED and
TEDx speeches, become TV personalities, spoken around the world
at events hosted by us as well as partner organizations, and
participated in FSI's 21 English speech contests.
* Behind-the-scenes: Numerous other refugees avoiding public
attention have gone on to graduate from college, get employed,
win scholarships and fellowships.
* Budget: During 2013, Eunkoo and I spent out of pocket the first
year. I would laugh out loud when people asked me about our
budget. "WHAT BUDGET?" In late 2014, I loaned FSI $4,000 so we
could hold the speech contest and engage in other activities and
gave another $4,000 for various things. In 2016, Eunkoo loaned
TNKR $9,000 so we could put a deposit on our first office.
* Remaining learner-centered: We have changed our mission, but it is still refugee-centered. Although many see our organization as being a playground, hangout spot, friendship association, dating club, we have developed a strong reputation among North Korean refugees. Our mission has changed but they are still contacting us, The best compliment of all is what refugees tell other refugees: "Don't join until you are serious."
* Public support: We have several monthly donors, including some who have donated enough money so we can secure the deposit and could return Eunkoo's $9,000 deposit on the office without destroying the organization. Finally, in 2020, the co-founders no longer must put their own money into the organization's budget. For anyone concerned this means we don't care, we are still both donors. We were saved by other donors in South Korea who donated enough money that Eunkoo and I didn't have to cover any of the deposit for our office relocation, and the landlords incredibly lowered the deposit requirement.
* Internal capacity: At first, it was just Eunkoo and Casey working with volunteers and refugees in our spare time, but now we have paid staff.
* Partnerships: Becoming a stronger organization has made the organization less of a risk to deal with. When we looked like a fly-by-night organization, larger organizations had an excuse to ignore us. But now we have larger public, private, quasi-government agencies and even governments coming to us, seeking to partner with us, to refer refugees to them and to facilitate their programs. It is also more difficult for them to ignore us because we have many North Korean refugees talking about the organization.
* Refusal to die: One of our early supporters, Prof. Kim Chung-ho, remarked that we refused to let the organization die. With no major donor and without full-time staff, we remained alive. Probably the best demonstration of the organization's tenacity is that it has even survived many attempts by the American co-founder to kill it.
- 2013, I was ready to walk away from the project when I started hearing rumors of volunteers and students hanging out rather than studying. As I told one of the tutors, "Do you think I want to use my master's degree in education from Harvard to run a damn social club in Korea?"
- 2014, I started getting offers to return to the USA with a huge salary and staff, rather than chasing funding here. I wrote about one dramatic case here.
- 2015, I realized that in starting this project, I was dating a corpse; the organization would not be able to attract funding. Plus, one of the organizations that had been chasing me in 2014, calling me back to the USA, sweetened the salary offer. I began inviting volunteers to help us fund the organization, but most weren't interested and resented the invitation.
- 2016, I was hearing more about tutors and students wanting to hang out, so I was wondering if this was worth it, wondering if we would get caught up in a scandal. We then had our most serious crackdown on socializing.
- 2017, I began suggesting internally that we needed to kill the tutoring program and instead focus on public speaking. And I received another sweet offer to return to the USA to become a political commentator.
- 2018, I suggested to co-founder Eunkoo Lee that we should kill the organization on its 5th anniversary and go on with our lives. Volunteers who wanted to celebrate the fifth anniversary were surprised when I told them that I had been planning a funeral rather than a celebration.
That's right, the organization survived my many attempts to kill it, and is now celebrating a different anniversary: FSI is celebrating its seventh anniversary that I haven't tried to kill it.
TNKR/FSI must be saying, 'That which Casey Lartigue doesn't kill me makes me stronger." And that's fine with me, my view has been that if an idea or mission is strong, then it will survive my constant internal attacks.
* Office: The first Matching session was at a TOZ Business Center. We now have our own office. In our early years, we were unstable, moving from place to place. As one of our students said, "TNKR moves so much, it looks like a refugee."
- March-April 2013, TOZ business center for our first Matching session.
- May 2013-August 2015, Mulmangcho Human Rights Institute office to hold orientation and Matching sessions
- Dec 2013-May 2015, Freedom Factory office (orientation, Matching, tutoring, and Casey Lartigue's desk became TNKR's office)
- Sept 2015-February 2016, Bitcoin Center (held orientation, Matching and had 1:1 tutoring sessions there)
- Dec 2015, Gongduck Community Center (Matching session, our other options weren't available)
- Feb-May 2016, Online University (held orientation, Matching, 1:1 tutoring, TNKR's office)
- June 2016, Dangsan Business Center (short-term as we waited for new office to become available)
- July 2016, TNKR office established at Gwangheungchang station
- March 2020, TNKR office moved to Sangsu Station. It is now 2024, we had planned to move by now to a larger space, but we will need to wait until 2026.
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The name has also changed numerous times over the years:
- 2013, North Korean Teachers Project
- 2013, English Matching
- 2014, Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR)
- 2016, Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center (TNKR)
- 2021, Freedom Speakers International (FSI)
We had planned to make our 100th Language Matching session a special thing. We had been too busy with activities to stop for long to think about making it special. Which turned out to be a good thing.
Hello Coronavirus.
We began analyzing operations without the constant push to have
yet another delightful Matching session every month. Then finally
everyone in the organization was ready to listen to my suggestion
that we scrap the tutoring program (at least temporarily) and
instead focus on public speaking.
FSI is stronger than ever. Our budget is still humble, but I can remember the day that we looked at the organization's bank account a few years ago, and we only had about 37,000 won (about $30) in it. As I told Eunkoo, "Even if we wanted to, we couldn't take refugees out to dinner."
Without fans, volunteers and fundraisers donating and raising money, we would have never gotten to this point. Thankfully many people have been willing to give "a dime" as well as their time into making FSI into a special organization for North Korean refugees. Eleven years ago, we started activities without any long-term plans. We are now incorporated at the highest level.
This week, for our 12th anniversary, we participated in a conference at Harvard University and hosted a one-hour workshop, gave a speech at a high school outside of Boston, and had two events in Seoul featuring North Korean refugee speakers. Instead of trying to hold a gala, we will celebrate our 12th anniversary this month.
