Enabling Resilience

The challenge

North Korean people often arrive in a new country with mental health problems and support needs that negatively impact their everyday lives.

Life in such an oppressive state, coupled with the trauma caused by their experiences escaping North Korea, as well as social isolation, are all significant barriers to escaped North Korean people being able to move forward positively in their new lives.

Often, they also feel unable to turn to professionals who could potentially help because of an understandable lack of trust in authorities and language barriers.

The aim of our programme is to support escaped North Korean people with the recovery of their mental health, so they can overcome the day-to-day barriers they face in their efforts to build new lives.

Enabling Resilience

Our qualified Korean mental health professionals are uniquely placed to understand the trauma North Korean escapees experience, and the challenges they face in their attempts to integrate into new societies so different from anything they have ever known, with freedoms that are so alien to them.

This shared lived experience and language is crucial to supporting North Korean people with their recovery, and developing the skills and confidence they need to make informed choices about their lives and take their full place in society.

Enabling Resilience integrates community outreach, mental health care, and advice, information, and guidance services.

It is designed to provide the scaffolding to maximise successful completion of the Enabling Freedom programme, ensuring each person gets as much benefit as possible from the opportunities it provides.

Enabling Resilience

The challenge

Enabling Resilience

Read more about this programme