Since helping to organize a panel discussion around entrepreneurship and markets in North Korea last year, I have been getting more involved in volunteering for an organization, Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), that I believe has a crucial mission: the rescue and resettlement of refugees escaping North Korea.

Having met and become friends now with a couple of them–these refugees are incredible people. They defied all odds to escape a country and regime which is responsible for the imprisonment, impoverishment and systemic abuse of 25 million people–and those are just the people living in the country. Once escaping, most on foot in the dead of winter, many of them have followed a modern-day underground railroad through China sponsored by LiNK to get to freedom in South Korea, the United States or elsewhere. In North Korea some of them ran successful black market businesses. Some smuggled goods across the border. And some just dreamed of living a better life with opportunity.

Next Thursday, we’ll be gathering at a bar in the East Village to celebrate LiNK’s milestone of 1,000 refugees resettled and learn about how you can help do even more to support the important work of this vital organization. You can RSVP for the event for free on Facebook here.