An estimated 200,000 Korean children have been sent abroad for adoption.  More and more adoptees return to Korea, either to visit or live and although there’s no sure number, about 500 adoptees estimated to be living in country. There are five major adoptee-run groups that help support the adoptee community living in Korea and abroad:

GOA’L (Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link), which provides help for adoptees who have returned to Korea. This organization is the largest of the three groups with more than 6,000 members worldwide and 250 members in Korea. Their major services include: Birth Family Search support, Korean language scholarships, Social networking and educational opportunities, and Daily Living support services. GOA’L also claimed a huge victory when it made its case that adoptees should be among those eligible for dual citizenship when the new law takes effect next January 2011. The group’s membership is open to anyone who’s interested in supporting the adoption community. For more information, visit their website, http://goal.or.kr/

ASK (Adoptee Solidarity Korea) is a group of adoptees whose mission is to “address the problems associated with Korean overseas adoption. Through education and activism, [they] aim to raise awareness, advocate change, and support alternatives to intercountry adoption.” Their main activities include outreach to bring awareness to the Korean public about the issues of continued international adoption, petition writing campaigns, and adoption policy revision activism. For this group, membership is limited to adoptees but supporters and collaborators can be from all walks of life. For more information, please visit their website http://adopteesolidarity.org/

TRACK (Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoptee Community of Korea), the newest of the groups, is a group whose mission is to “advocate full knowledge of past and present Korean adoption practices to protect the human rights of adult adoptees, children, and families.” Their main activities include research, President Jane Jeong Trenka is an author of two memoirs, was a co-editor of the adoption anthology “Outsiders Within,” and has written countless articles for academic journals, outreach to the Korean public, they have been holding awareness campaigns in subway stations with eye-catching mascots, and adoption policy revision activism. The group’s membership is open to anyone who’s interested in supporting the adoption community. For more information, please visit their website http://adoptionjustice.com/

Another organization, KoRoot, is not run by adoptees, but  helps to support adoptees during their time in Korea. The organization activities include: Providing low-cost rooms for returning adoptees at their guesthouse near Gyeongbokgung Palace, launching various initiatives to promote awareness among local citizens regarding Korean adoptees sent overseas – KoRoot recently funded and produced the documentary by adoptee filmmaker, Tammy Chu, titled Resilience, which premiered last year at the Busan International Film Festival and focused on the theme of birth mothers and adoptees, planning a number of activities, such as events for large Korean holidays. For more information about this group, please visit their website www.koroot.org

INKAS is a group that is run with a lot of government funding and therefore has a lot to offer in terms of Korean language scholarship opportunities.  They also offer multiple trip opportunities for adoptees to visit Korea and tour around the country.  They can also help with birth family search.  In addition, they sometimes plan social events for adoptees.  For more information about this group and the opportunities available, please visit their website http://www.inkas.or.kr/

Brent and Myunga, subjects of the documentary "Resilience"

Korea has a historied past of international adoption, dating back to after the Korean War.  More recently, in a move to encourage domestic adoption, the Korean government deemed May 11th “Adoption Day” as part of the Family days that dot the May calendar (May 5th – Children’s Day, May 8th – Parent’s Day, May 21st – Spouse’s Day, etc.)

Within the past couple of years, international adoptee groups in Korea (ASK, TRACK, KoRoot) have been working alongside national lawmakers, a group of public interest lawyers (Gonggam),  and an unwed mothers’ group (Miss Mama Mia) to revise the Special Adoption Law, the law that governs all adoptions in Korea.  You can read more about their work here. 

In order to educate the public more about the issues of adoption in Korea, one international Korean adoptee group, ASK (Adoptee Solidarity Korea) is hosting an Adoption Day Event on Monday, May 10th.  The first part of the event, which starts at 6:30pm, will be a “Special Adoption Law Reception,” where attendees can hear from speakers within the movement, including Congresswoman Choi Young-Hee (DP).  The second part of the event, which starts at 7:30pm, will be a film screening of adoptee filmmaker Tammy Chu’s most recent documentary, Resilience (회복의 길) which premiered at last year’s Busan International Film Festival.  You can read more about the film here.  Tickets cost 10,000 won which includes food and beverages and all proceeds from the event will be donated directly to Miss Mama Mia.

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On Saturday, December 19th, Seoul Station found itself host to a chicken on a mission. 

A chicken on a mission?  Correction, a chicken on rollerblades on a mission. 
 
What sort of mission exactly would a chicken have in Seoul Station? 
 
The “Chicken Campaign” organized by Jane Jeong Trenka’s group TRACK (Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea) set up on a cold Saturday afternoon in one of the busiest subway stations in Seoul to spread a message and, according to Trenka, “make the connection between overseas adoption and unwed mothers [where] 89% of the children who are sent overseas for adoption are the children of unwed mothers.”  She attributes this to two main reasons:  societal discrimination and lack of government support. 

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National Assembly Public Hearing

Leveraging the help of a group of lawyers and a Korean unwed mothers’ organization, a group of expats in Seoul are driving a movement to create a major shift in how the country deals with adoptions. 

With the support of Democratic Party Representative Choi Young-hee, this coalition presented its bill to revise the current Special Act Relating to Adoption Promotion and Procedure law at a National Assembly public hearing on Nov. 10. 

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Brent and Myunga, subjects of the documentary "Resilience"

Behind the glamour of adoption, new beginnings and happy reunions, there is another side of loss and separation for birth mothers, birth families, and adoptees that is often left out of the discussion.

Popular culture mostly fails to take up the issue from the perspective of the birth mother. What factors forced the decision to give up her child? Were there other options? How has she coped since?

Filmmaker Tammy Chu asks those questions, but also considers the feeling of separation from the side of the adoptee and the sometimes life-long journey to find an identity; or come to terms with the circumstances surrounding their adoption.

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