Archive

A generation fights to reform adoption laws
By Limb Jae-un
The JoongAng Daily 2009.11.11
Six Korean adoptees filed an appeal with the Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission last year to request a probe into irregularities in their adoption documents and possible illegal procedures at local adoption agencies.
Now, they’re involved in a full-fledged battle to reform adoption laws and procedures, and they’re getting help from some heavyweights.
Adoptee rights and community groups as well as unwed mothers, the public interest law firm Gong-Gam and Democratic Party Representative Choi Young-hee have joined forces with the adoptees in an effort to convince lawmakers to revise the Special Law Relating to the Promotion and Procedure of Adoption.
The National Assembly has now taken up the issue and is exploring changes through a series of hearings.

South Koreans Struggle With Race
By CHOE SANG-HUN
The New York Times
November 1, 2009
SEOUL — On the evening of July 10, Bonogit Hussain, a 29-year-old Indian man, and Hahn Ji-seon, a female Korean friend, were riding a bus near Seoul when a man in the back began hurling racial and sexist slurs at them.
The situation would be a familiar one to many Korean women who have dated or even — as in Ms. Hahn’s case — simply traveled in the company of a foreign man.
What was different this time, however, was that, once it was reported in the South Korean media, prosecutors sprang into action, charging the man they have identified only as a 31-year-old Mr. Park with contempt, the first time such charges had been applied to an alleged racist offense. Spurred by the case, which is pending in court, rival political parties in Parliament have begun drafting legislation that for the first time would provide a detailed definition of discrimination by race and ethnicity and impose criminal penalties.

Korea continues to deny overseas adoptees access
By Jennifer Kwon Dobbs and Jane Jeong Trenka
The Korea Times 07-17-2009 15:45
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family opened a central adoption information service center Wednesday to provide post-adoption services to adoptees searching for their birth families. However, there's one significant problem that the ministry has ignored: adoptee access.
This center is meant to fulfill the requirement of a ``central authority'' by the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. Click on the central authority's new Web site (www.kcare.or.kr) featuring images of adoptees for whom their birth families are searching and you'll find it is completely in the Korean language. Can an overseas adoptee whose first language is either English or French read or use this?
Since 1953, South Korea has sent over 160,000 Korean children abroad to 14 Western countries. It is the oldest and largest adoption program in the world, despite South Korea's economic miracle.
Reunion with birth families is a primary reason for adoptees to return to South Korea. From 1995-2005, the ministry reported that 78,000 adoptees came to South Korea to search for their families. Yet only 2.7 percent were reunited. What accounts for this low success rate?

Digital Chosunilbo
2008.11.21
Celebrity Couple to Receive Philanthropy Award
Celebrity couple Cha In-pyo and Shin Ae-ra will be honored with the 20th Asan Special Award.
The Asan Foundation explained that the couple has contributed greatly to combating social prejudice by officially adopting two children, and devoting themselves to helping those in need by supporting 31 children across the world with continuous donations.
The couple said, "We never expected to receive the award, as there are so many people who are helping others in hidden places, but we are very delighted, because we can help more children with the prize."
They will be awarded a medal with 50 million won (US$1=W1,497) of prize money during a ceremony at Asan Education Institute in Seoul next Thursday.

Chosun Ilbo
2008.10.30
Cho Byung-kuk: Lifelong Guardian Angel of Adoptees
At the Holt Children’s Service Pediatric Clinic on the morning of October 20, Dr. Cho Byung-kuk, the clinic’s 75-year-old ex-director, was examining a nine-year-old girl who will be adopted into the U.S. soon. The gray-haired woman was shorter than 160cm and slightly hunched. However, she quickly and skillfully examined the girl. Having finished the examination, she gasped for breath, tapping her shoulder with one hand. Without respite, a staffer immediately brought another child in to her office.
Cho is the “godmother of adopted children.” She has checked the health of adoptees at the Holt Children’s Service Pediatric Clinic and the Holt Ilsan Center for five decades. She actually retired in 1993. But she couldn’t stop caring for children, so continued the job. She has treated more than 50,000 adoptees until now. Unfortunately, the severe pain in her shoulders will force her to abandon her stethoscope soon.
Cho first became involved with Holt Children’s Services in 1958 while working as a resident doctor at Yonsei University Severance Hospital. “There were a lot of abandoned children after the Korean War. Children with contagious diseases, children who became retarded because of malnutrition…,” she said.
When she saw ailing children get healthy only a month or two after she treated them, she decided to dedicate the rest of her life to them. “I did the job because I like children,” she noted. “I felt pity for abandoned kids and wanted to help them find new families.

Joongang Daily
11.26.2008

Loving message for a lost mother
Donald Gordon Bell, known only as A-20 when he was a child at a Seoul orphanage, has long sought his biological mother to give her a message. But this 56-year-old adoptee’s message is not one of resentment, as one with a stereotypical view of adoptees might assume.
Instead, it is to convey his gratitude for her decision to give him away. He said it comes from an understanding of the situation she found herself in. “I want her to know I don’t have any grudge against her,” said Bell, who grew up in Los Angeles after he was adopted at the age of four.

The Korea Herald
2008.11.25
Christmas fundraiser for orphanage
Just days before Christmas, Sam Dong Boys Town Orphanage will host a benefit party to make this holiday season a memorable one for almost 70 orphans.
Sam Dong Boys Town Orphanage, located in Seoul, currently houses 69 potential adoptees, some of whom are less than a year old.
Boys Town is also considered a historic orphanage because it was first established during the Korean War by the U.S. Armys 5th regimental combat team.
I hope that we can continue to recruit more volunteers to help out at this orphanage, said Thomas J. Fortunato, the main organizer for the benefit. If you are looking for a way to give back to the community, this is definitely a worthy cause.

The Korea Herald
2008.11.20
More babies adopted locally
The number of domestic adoptions exceeded the international adoption figure for the first time in Korea last year, according to data released by a research agency yesterday.
In a statistical report by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, the total number of children adopted locally increased from 1,332 in 2006 to 1,388 in 2007, while internationally adopted children decreased from 1,899 in 2006 to 1,264 last year.
In an overall view, the total number of adoptions is dropping but international adoption figures are falling at a faster pace, said Chang Young-sik, senior fellow at the statistics development team at the institute. This is partly because more people are now open to adoptions, a fact that was kept mum in the past.
This is an interesting finding due to the fact that, ever since 1953, foreign adoptions have been much more popular than domestic adoptions.

The Korea Herald
2008.11.26
Part II:Am I American or am I Korean?

Following is Part II of a three part series on growing up adopted. Part III will be in tomorrows Expat Living. To comment, e-mail [email protected]. Richard Spalding can be reached through his blog www.inmyseoul.com -- Ed.
From Part I
My mothers favorite childhood story about me was when I paraded around the house with an American flag, playing Bruce Springsteens Born in the USA on my Playskool cassette player, and singing along at the top of my lungs. Ironically, this song was my favorite while I was growing up. It is ironic because I was not born in the USA.

The Korea Herald
11.23.08
Am I American or am I Korean?
Following is Part I of a three part series on growing up adopted. Part II will be in tomorrows Expat Living. To comment, e-mail [email protected]. Richard Spalding can be reached through his blog www.inmyseoul.com - Ed.
My mothers favorite childhood story about me was when I paraded around the house with an American flag, playing Bruce Springsteens Born in the USA on my Playskool cassette player, and singing along at the top of my lungs. Ironically, this song was my favorite while I was growing up. It is ironic because I was not born in the USA.
I celebrate Oct. 20 as my birthday. I say celebrate because I do not know the exact date of my birth. The reason my parents dont know my birthday is because I was adopted from the Grace Orphanage in Daejeon, Korea, when I was about 5 years old. My adoptive parents had to assign a birthday to me for legal purposes, and they chose Oct. 20, 1980.
Yes, they even had to pick the year for my birthday.