Welcome to KUMSN Website

120217 For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage

2012-02-28T17:18:44P

[New York Times] February 17, 2012

For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage

LORAIN, Ohio — It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal. After steadily rising for five decades, the share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold: more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage.

Once largely limited to poor women and minorities, motherhood without marriage has settled deeply into middle America. The fastest growth in the last two decades has occurred among white women in their 20s who have some college education but no four-year degree, according to Child Trends, a Washington research group that analyzed government data.

Among mothers of all ages, a majority — 59 percent in 2009 — are married when they have children. But the surge of births outside marriage among younger women — nearly two-thirds of children in the United States are born to mothers under 30 — is both a symbol of the transforming family and a hint of coming generational change.

One group still largely resists the trend: college graduates, who overwhelmingly marry before having children. That is turning family structure into a new class divide, with the economic and social rewards of marriage increasingly reserved for people with the most education.

“Marriage has become a luxury good,” said Frank Furstenberg, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

The shift is affecting children’s lives. Researchers have consistently found that children born outside marriage face elevated risks of falling into poverty, failing in school or suffering emotional and behavioral problems.

The forces rearranging the family are as diverse as globalization and the pill. Liberal analysts argue that shrinking paychecks have thinned the ranks of marriageable men, while conservatives often say that the sexual revolution reduced the incentive to wed and that safety net programs discourage marriage.

Here in Lorain, a blue-collar town west of Cleveland where the decline of the married two-parent family has been especially steep, dozens of interviews with young parents suggest that both sides have a point.

Over the past generation, Lorain lost most of two steel mills, a shipyard and a Ford factory, diminishing the supply of jobs that let blue-collar workers raise middle-class families. More women went to work, making marriage less of a financial necessity for them. Living together became routine, and single motherhood lost the stigma that once sent couples rushing to the altar. Women here often describe marriage as a sign of having arrived rather than a way to get there.

Meanwhile, children happen.

Amber Strader, 27, was in an on-and-off relationship with a clerk at Sears a few years ago when she found herself pregnant. A former nursing student who now tends bar, Ms. Strader said her boyfriend was so dependent that she had to buy his cigarettes. Marrying him never entered her mind. “It was like living with another kid,” she said.

When a second child, with a new boyfriend, followed three years later — her birth control failed, she said — her boyfriend, a part-time house painter, was reluctant to wed.

Ms. Strader likes the idea of marriage; she keeps her parents’ wedding photo on her kitchen wall and says her boyfriend is a good father. But for now marriage is beyond her reach.

“I’d like to do it, but I just don’t see it happening right now,” she said. “Most of my friends say it’s just a piece of paper, and it doesn’t work out anyway.”

The recent rise in single motherhood has set off few alarms, unlike in past eras. When Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then a top Labor Department official and later a United States senator from New York, reported in 1965 that a quarter of black children were born outside marriage — and warned of a “tangle of pathology” — he set off a bitter debate.

By the mid-1990s, such figures looked quaint: a third of Americans were born outside marriage. Congress, largely blaming welfare, imposed tough restrictions. Now the figure is 41 percent — and 53 percent for children born to women under 30, according to Child Trends, which analyzed 2009 data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Still, the issue received little attention until the publication last month of “Coming Apart,” a book by Charles Murray, a longtime critic of non-marital births.

Large racial differences remain: 73 percent of black children are born outside marriage, compared with 53 percent of Latinos and 29 percent of whites. And educational differences are growing. About 92 percent of college-educated women are married when they give birth, compared with 62 percent of women with some post-secondary schooling and 43 percent of women with a high school diploma or less, according to Child Trends.

Almost all of the rise in nonmarital births has occurred among couples living together. While in some countries such relationships endure at rates that resemble marriages, in the United States they are more than twice as likely to dissolve than marriages. In a summary of research, Pamela Smock and Fiona Rose Greenland, both of the University of Michigan, reported that two-thirds of couples living together split up by the time their child turned 10.

In Lorain as elsewhere, explanations for marital decline start with home economics: men are worth less than they used to be. Among men with some college but no degrees, earnings have fallen 8 percent in the past 30 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the earnings of their female counterparts have risen by 8 percent.

“Women used to rely on men, but we don’t need to anymore,” said Teresa Fragoso, 25, a single mother in Lorain. “We support ourselves. We support our kids.”

Fifty years ago, researchers have found, as many as a third of American marriages were precipitated by a pregnancy, with couples marrying to maintain respectability. Ms. Strader’s mother was among them.

Today, neither of Ms. Strader’s pregnancies left her thinking she should marry to avoid stigma. Like other women interviewed here, she described her children as largely unplanned, a byproduct of uncommitted relationships.

Some unwed mothers cite the failures of their parents’ marriages as reasons to wait. Brittany Kidd was 13 when her father ran off with one of her mother’s friends, plunging her mother into depression and leaving the family financially unstable.

“Our family life was pretty perfect: a nice house, two cars, a dog and a cat,” she said. “That stability just got knocked out like a window; it shattered.”

Ms. Kidd, 21, said she could not imagine marrying her son’s father, even though she loves him. “I don’t want to wind up like my mom,” she said.

Others noted that if they married, their official household income would rise, which could cost them government benefits like food stamps and child care. W. Bradford Wilcox, a sociologist at the University of Virginia, said other government policies, like no-fault divorce, signaled that “marriage is not as fundamental to society” as it once was.

Even as many Americans withdraw from marriage, researchers say, they expect more from it: emotional fulfillment as opposed merely to practical support. “Family life is no longer about playing the social role of father or husband or wife, it’s more about individual satisfaction and self-development,” said Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University.

Money helps explain why well-educated Americans still marry at high rates: they can offer each other more financial support, and hire others to do chores that prompt conflict. But some researchers argue that educated men have also been quicker than their blue-collar peers to give women equal authority. “They are more willing to play the partner role,” said Sara McLanahan, a Princeton sociologist.

Reviewing the academic literature, Susan L. Brown of Bowling Green State University recently found that children born to married couples, on average, “experience better education, social, cognitive and behavioral outcomes.”

Lisa Mercado, an unmarried mother in Lorain, would not be surprised by that. Between nursing classes and an all-night job at a gas station, she rarely sees her 6-year-old daughter, who is left with a rotating cast of relatives. The girl’s father has other children and rarely lends a hand.

“I want to do things with her, but I end up falling asleep,” Ms. Mercado said.

By JASON DePARLE and SABRINA TAVERNISE

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/us/for-women-under-30-most-births-occur-outside-marriage.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&pagewanted=print

111124 Stigma of baby 'exporter'

2012-01-11T17:01:43P

[The Korea Times] November 24^th, 2011

[Opinion]Stigma of baby 'exporter'

New culture needed to solve the problem

It is a shame that the nation is still stigmatized as one of the world’s biggest “exporters” of babies despite its rapid economic growth. The dishonor is evident in the U.S. State Department’s 2011 Annual Adoption Report to Congress that lists South Korea as the No. 1 source of inter-country adoptions for American families.

According to the report, American foster parents adopted 734 Korean children between October 2010 and September this year. The number of adoptees from other countries stood at 216 from the Philippines, 196 from Uganda and 168 from India.

Korea sent 1,013 children overseas to join their new parents in 2010, accounting for 40 percent of the country’s total adoptees. It is urgent to promote domestic adoptions in order to reduce the number of inter-country adoptions. The nation’s birthrate has nosedived to 1.23, but why has it continued to have its orphans leave the country?

In the past, poverty had driven parents to give up their own children. But these days, young unwed moms are accountable for over 90 percent of total adoptions. The best way to solve the problem is to let such moms raise their children by themselves.

There are serious challenges: deep-rooted prejudice and discrimination against unmarried mothers. Korea is traditionally a Confucian society, and its members have put a stress on blood ties, making it difficult to adopt children here. That’s why domestic adoption has been in the doldrums. Koreans have recently begun to change due to rapid socioeconomic transformations. But it still has a long way to go before having a better awareness about adoption.

What’s important is to create a new culture that can change Koreans’ attitude. The nation needs to create a society that puts more value on family and children. Most of all, all members of society should get rid of discrimination against unmarried mothers.

It is true that unmarried mothers are still treated as “sinners.” People have tried to have the “scarlet letter” engraved into the heart of women bearing a child out of wedlock. They should no longer be hypocrites. Now they must embrace unwed mothers as their neighbors to live together.

It is also required to provide better sex education to schoolchildren in order to help them avoid unwanted pregnancies. Educational authorities and the community should better protect the rights of unmarried teenage mothers so that they can raise their children and study simultaneously.

Needless to say, children are our future. We should let them fully enjoy their basic human rights whoever they are ― adopted or not. We must remember the preamble of the Hague Adoption Convention that reads: “Recognizing that the child … should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding.”

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2011/11/202_99479.html

111230 Overseas adoption: child welfare or abuse?

2012-01-11T16:45:40P

[The Korea Times] December 30^th, 2011

Overseas adoption: child welfare or abuse?

Some years ago, during a seminar about overseas adoption from Korea, I stated that the practice is “child abuse rather than child welfare.” Some of the social workers who were working for overseas adoption agencies looked very shocked when they heard my presentation.

After the seminar, some of them came to me and made strong complaints and protested. They argued, “Why do you insult and disgrace us, while we try to find sweet homes for abandoned children through overseas adoption?”

Korea’s overseas adoption program started immediately after the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Now Korea’s per capita national income is more than $20,000 and the economy ranks in the world’s top 15, yet Korea is still one of the world’s major countries sending its own children overseas for adoption.

According to government statistics, Korea has sent nearly 200,000 children overseas for adoption from 1953 to the present. Among those children, there were 5,546 mixed-race children sent from 1955 to 1973 (after which mixed-race children were no longer counted because the vast majority of adoptees were full-blooded Koreans), 98,178 children from unwed mothers, 28,823 children from broken families, 29,950 abandoned children and 37,216 disabled children.

According to these statistics, through overseas adoption, we sent away the mixed-race children, the children of unwed mothers, disabled children, and the children of broken families. That is why I define Korea’s overseas adoption as a kind of “systematic social segregation.” Of course, as a member of Korean society, I am also complicit in this massive “systematic social segregation project.”

From a micro-perspective, overseas adoption can be seen as child welfare. In view of this, certainly I am very grateful to the adoptive parents in Western countries, who have looked after the abandoned Korean children with “philanthropic love.” I also am deeply appreciative of the various social workers in adoption agencies, police stations, maternity clinics and orphanages, to name but a few, who have tried to provide a sweet home for abandoned children. However, from a macro-perspective, the overseas adoption program of Korea has been deeply related to the international social system.

First, overseas adoption is a kind of child abuse by the state. Second, the overseas adoption policy of the government was likely a part of its economic development strategy, which means the overseas adoptees have been used as part of a project to create wealth and prosperity for the rest of the South Koreans.

Overseas adoption is the forced expulsion of children from the society where they are supposed to live. In this sense, overseas adoption is a social violence against children. As humans, we exist as part of a gigantic ecosystem. The existence of the biological parents of adoptees can never be annihilated nor denied. Accordingly, while adoptees are growing up, they should be given information about their biological parents and be able to interact with them. By doing so, adoptees can form their identity with less conflict.

Overseas adoption is a forced separation of children from their natural ecosystems, as well as a way of forcing them into compulsory unity with settings different from and unnatural to their genetic and original social systems. Through this forced separation and compulsory unity, not only the adoptees, but also their biological parents, adoptive parents and their family members suffer trauma.

The overseas adoption of Korean children can be seen as child abuse since it has been interrelated with the economic development strategy of the government. How can we call the overseas adoption program of Korea “child welfare” when we create wealth and prosperity by forcefully expelling them?

According to government statistics, overseas adoptions peaked during the 1970s and ‘80s. Between 1953 and 1968, fewer than 1,000 children were sent away for overseas adoption annually. This figure rose sharply: in 1969, 1,192 children were sent; in 1970, 1,932; in 1971, 2,725; and in 1985, 8,837. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, 113,568 children were sent for overseas adoption ― more than half of all overseas adoptees in the last six decades.

During the 1970s and ‘80s, “economic development” was the national motto of our society. In view of this, “child export” was used as a tool that promoted economic development and created wealth in our country. In 1988, Matthew Rothschild of The Progressive magazine pointed out that a Korean adoption agency received $5,000 per child as a fee from abroad in return for an overseas adoption. This went up to $10,000 per child by 2000 ― what a land of economic prosperity!

Through the figure given by The Progressive, we can estimate that throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Korea earned between $20 and $40 million annually from the overseas adoption business. At that time, if any Korean company exported even $1 million in goods, they were acknowledged by the government.

Incidentally, it is quite common to find letters of appreciation sent in the 1970s by Korean ambassadors to adoptive parents in Europe. Given this information, it is plausible that in the 1970s, the Korean government itself was the main driving force promoting overseas adoption as a national policy.

By sending nearly 200,000 children for overseas adoption to date, the government may have saved a considerable amount of money. In this respect, the overseas adoption policy killed two birds with one stone. On one hand, it brought in hard currency, while on the other hand, it cut welfare costs.

It is clear that the government systematically promoted overseas adoption and used children as a tool for economic development while neglecting its duty to protect children’s rights.

By Kim Do-hyun

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2011/12/198_101917.html

Pastor Kim Do-hyun is a director of KoRoot, a nonprofit organization that provides assistance to Korean children who had been adopted overseas. He can be reached at: master@koroot.org.

120109 Single Mothers in Poverty Trap

2012-01-11T15:28:57P

[Chosunilbo] Jan 9^th, 2012

Single Mothers in Poverty Trap

Experts say while it is generally believed that single mothers suffer most from discrimination, actually the worst thing is economic problems.

There were an estimated 211,500 single mothers with children under 18 across the country as of November 2009, according to Seoul City's center for single parents.

According to a Ministry of Health and Welfare policy report in 2009, 62.8 percent of single mothers said they suffered most from economic difficulties. Next came housing problems (15.9 percent), childcare (6.2 percent), and difficulties finding jobs or family-work balance (3.5 percent). Only 2.7 percent complained about discrimination.

About a half of the single mothers work part-time or on short-term contracts due to their lack of professional skills and childcare problems. According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, about 40 percent of all single working mothers are part-time workers, with 35.3 percent working in the service and retail industries, i.e. in typically low-paid menial jobs like supermarket cashiers.

According to the 2009 policy report, single mothers with a monthly average income of W500,000-1 million (US$1=W1,149) accounted for the largest proportion or 56.5 percent. They were followed by those earning between W1 million and W1.5 million (26.1 percent) and those making less than W500,000 (17.4 percent).

Most single mothers are chronically in debt because they have to take care of their children. "Single mothers earn about W740,000 on monthly average including their own income and assistance from their family, the government or other agencies. But their average monthly cost of living amounts to W1.05 million," a staffer at civic group Single Parent said.

Childcare expenses took up the largest portion of the monthly cost of living at W360,000. Next came food (W290,000), rent (W190,000), clothing (W80,000), and transportation (W80,000).

According to a survey conducted in 2006 by Single Parent, 44.3 percent of single mothers borrowed about W50,000-100,000 every month for living costs. Some 24.1 percent borrowed less than W50,000 and 22.8 percent about W300,000-1 million a month.

Another survey said single mothers' average debt is W16 million. "Many single mothers are mired in poverty due to their meager income and childcare burden," a staffer with the Seoul center said. "The government needs to work out ways to supply them with loans or rental homes and legally compel fathers to support their children."

englishnews@chosun.com

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/01/07/2012010700420.html

110802 Adoptee urges Korea to reconcile painful past

2011-10-13T10:56:44P

[The Korea Times] August 2^nd 2011

Adoptee urges Korea to reconcile painful past

By Kim Young-jin

Her birth mother’s care package, which arrived that first winter after she arrived in the United States from Korea as an infant, was ostensibly a Christmas gift.

But nearly four decades later, Jane Jeong Trenka says the gift, a traditional Korean dress, was also a sign that her mother was desperately trying to contact her and her sister after an adoption process that was far less than transparent.

Trenka, now a Seoul-based advocate for adoptee rights, says while her mother chose to give them up due to her husband’s alcoholism, she was misled into thinking they would eventually come back after studying for a time in Minnesota.

Her papers, which she acquired with the permission of her birth family, also say that the two were deserted by their mother, who later said no such thing occurred.

“It was not an ethical adoption,” said Trenka, the 39-year-old head of the group Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea (TRACK).

She is among the more than 200,000 Koreans who have been adopted abroad since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Many return to Korea to search for their birth parents or the circumstances of their adoption.

Trenka says that while many of the adoptions appear to have been processed legally, countless adoptees find that abuses occurred in order to facilitate them.

Korea, she says, must take a hard look at the corruption and learn from the experience.

“Korea has been held up as a model country for international adoption,” said Trenka, who reunited with her mother in 1995 and detailed the experience in her book, “The Language of Blood.”

“But when you come here and meet all these adoptees who tell what happens to them, you find that is totally false.”

The call for action comes at a time of momentum for the adoptee community after TRACK and others spearheaded the recent passage of a reform bill by the National Assembly that could significantly improve adoption conditions if properly implemented.

The law, which takes effect in January, will give adoptees better access to information held by international adoption agencies and shift government focus to providing services to help Korean parents keep their children.

Time for reconciliation

The past, however, is an entirely different story, a fact that many adoptees attest to after coming to Korea only to find a web of falsified information about their past, if any at all.

“What happens most of the time is that the agencies say there are no records, which isn’t always true. But it’s our human right to know where we came from,” she said.

Though many do reunite with their parents, others are told that records weren’t kept back then or that they burned in a fire.

The problem seems to begin with the agencies but stretch back further ― and higher up.

International adoptions from Korea picked up pace during the country’s rapid industrialization under the military dictatorship of Park Chung-hee.

Some scholars suggest that like other exports of human resources during that era, babies, especially those born out of wedlock, may have been seen as a tidy source of profit.

TRACK has found a number of abuses of the process that Trenka says were more than likely committed to expedite adoptions.

Among them are many cases of unclear relinquishment where, for instance, a person other than the parent gave a child away or did so for domestic, not international adoption. Many signatures appear forged.

The group has also documented cases where the children were kidnapped by relatives prior to adoption.

In some cases they were kidnapped by the orphanages, which told parents the children were not there, or had died.

Agencies still give parents a relinquishment of parental rights form, which works outside of the law, by which they can give up a child still in the womb, she said. Starting in January, when the revision takes effect, parents will be required to wait seven days to do so.

Misrepresentation on records, contradictions in the adoption files and forgeries are all rampant, she said.

Such abuses were brushed off when brought them to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission in the process of pushing the revision bill, prompting TRACK to take up its current awareness raising campaign.

It is pushing for the National Human Rights Commission to create a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate past adoption practices, which, at its peak were estimated to have sent 8,000 children abroad annually.

Such a body could interview social workers and parents to get the whole story to provide answers not only for adoptees but the entire nation. It is estimated that one in 48 Koreans have family ties to an adoptee.

“There’s a historical void over the whole adoption system. Koreans all know about the comfort women but when it comes to international adoptees, it’s like ‘huh?’” she said. “We don’t exist in the history books. There should be a record that we existed.”

It would also help bring a much-needed catharsis for the birth families, especially many mothers ridden with guilt.

“A poor woman can’t send a child overseas herself; you need a giant government mechanism for that. But at the end of the day the person that gets blamed is the woman. They need to understand that the whole society was making it so there was no other choice.”

Even if such a body is formed, TRACK and other organizations would still have plenty of work to do monitoring the government and agencies to ensure proper implementation of the law.

Then, perhaps, they can tackle other major problems in the domestic system, including a registration system that allows the vast majority of adoptions to go unrecorded.

But the country should not put the cart before the horse to solve such issues.

“We have to bring out the past even though a lot of people don’t want to think about it,” she said, “because those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it.”

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2011/08/182_92068.html

110725 Catholic Church makes adoption apology

2011-07-27T17:38:01P

[skyNews] July-25-2011

Catholic Church makes adoption apology

Her son grew up to be a man. What kind of man? Juliette Clough doesn't know.

She was just 16 when she was forced to give up her baby boy at a Catholic-run hospital in Newcastle in 1970.

'They just snatched away the baby,' she said on Monday, adding at the time her ankles were strapped to the bed and she had been 'gassed'.

'You weren't allowed to see him or touch him, anything like that, or hold him and it was just like a piece of my soul had died, and it's still dead.'

Her son is now 42 years old.

'I constantly think and imagine what his life would be like, whether he married and whether I have any grandchildren,' Ms Clough said in a statement to a Senate inquiry into forced adoptions.

Ms Clough is one of at least 150,000 Australian women who reportedly had their babies taken against their will by some churches and adoption agencies.

On Monday in Newcastle, the head of the healthcare arm of the Catholic Church apologised to the victims of forced adoption practices dating back 50 years.

The apology follows an admission by Catholic Health Australia that 'a small number' of church-run hospitals and women's homes maintained unwanted adoption practices from the 1950s to the 1970s.

CEO Martin Laverty said he is prepared to front a Senate inquiry to make an expression of sorrow and regret if such an apology brought healing and comfort to the women who had their new-born babies forcibly removed.

'It's with a deep sense of regret, a deep sense of sorrow that practices of the past have caused ongoing pain, suffering and grief to these women, these brave women in Newcastle but also women around Australia,' Mr Laverty said.

Mr Laverty said his organisation only became aware of the women's experiences in June.

'These practices of the past are no longer tolerated, nor by today's laws, and are deeply regrettable,' he said in a submission to an upper house committee investigating the Commonwealth's contribution to former forced adoption policies and practices.

'We acknowledge the pain of separation and loss felt then and now for the mothers, fathers, children, families and others involved in the practices of the time.'

'For the pain that arises from practices of the past, we are genuinely sorry.'

In some cases, the adoption practices had been 'devastating and had ongoing impacts' on families.

Ms Clough said her life has been shattered since her baby was taken.

She married later and gave birth again, but the forced separation of her first born made it difficult to fully bond with her subsequent children.

Suffering deep depression, Ms Clough said she continued to find it difficult to be the mother 'I wanted to and should have been.'

Catholic Health Australia is prepared to support the setting up of a framework that would allow the victims of forced adoption to get access to personal medical or social work records to help contact lost family members.

It would also support a fund for 'remedying established wrongs'.

http://www.skynews.com.au/national/article.aspx?id=642341&vId=

110706 Korea passes law to change adoption policy

2011-07-06T14:58:53P

Korea passes law to change adoption policy

Bill strengthens oversight, makes birth registration mandatory

“아이 포기 숙고하세요”…입양숙려제 도입

July 01, 2011

Korea has just passed historic legislation that is likely to change the way adoption in the country is practiced.

The bill to amend the country’s Special Act Relating to the Promotion and Procedure of Adoption, which was sponsored by Democratic Party Representative Choi Young-hee, passed Wednesday with 188 yeas, no nays and four abstentions.

The bill was drafted by a coalition of adoptees, single mothers and public interest groups, including Koroot, Dandelions, Adoptee Solidarity Korea, Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea, Gong-gam Public Interest Lawyers Group and the Unwed Mothers & Families Association.

Although Korea has revised its adoption law several times, this is the first time adoptees and single mothers have been included in the process.

The revised law is expected to shift adoption policy from “adoption promotion” to “family preservation.”

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the revised law will be renamed the Special Adoption Law, to remove the emphasis on promotion.

The new law will also expand rights for single mothers and adoptees. Under the law, adoptees will gain greater access to birth records and women will have a seven-day period to deliberate on whether to keep or relinquish their child. Korea currently has no such limitation.

The law also strengthens oversight of adoption procedures; makes birth registration mandatory, to guard against secret adoptions; and brings Korea into line with international standards for the care of children.

The bill’s passage puts Korea on a path to ratify the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption, which Korea has signed but not yet ratified. Opposition to the bill came from adoption agencies and prospective adoptive parents, who were concerned the law would discourage adoption.

Korea is one of the top five countries sending children for adoption, along with China, Ethiopia, Russia and Ukraine. More than 200,000 children have been adopted overseas since the 1950s, when Korea began sending children overseas in the aftermath of the Korean War. Today, around 90 percent of those adopted from Korea are the children of single mothers.

“The revised law focuses on children’s welfare and it is significant that adoptees participated in drafting the bill,” Choi said. “But this shouldn’t be the final step in reforming adoption policy in Korea. In order to decrease international adoption, the Ministry of Health and Welfare should take responsibility for mapping out a five-year plan.”

By Yim Seung-hye [sharon@joongang.co.kr]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2938312

110507 A joyful Mother's Day for some is one of lost childhood memories for others - the age

2011-06-20T21:16:32P

A joyful Mother's Day for some is
one of lost childhood memories for others

[the age]

Carol Nader

May 7, 2011

Condemned by society for having a child out of wedlock, Lyn Kinghorn says Mother's Day is a sad reminder of the 20 years she and daughter Christine spent apart. Photo: Luis Enrique Ascui

WHAT do you say to the daughter who left your arms as a baby and returned to your life a young woman? How do you recover 20 years together that you were deprived of? The reunion is no fairytale, says Lyn Kinghorn. But you can try, at least, to carve a place for yourself in each other's lives.

Mrs Kinghorn is part of a generation of unmarried women coerced into giving up their babies for adoption - a practice that was routine, mainly between the 1950s and 1970s, and is now the subject of a national Senate inquiry. Society condemned these women for having babies out of wedlock. Tomorrow, Mother's Day will be another sad reminder of loss.

The inquiry has received more than 200 submissions. Some women say they were given drugs to make them more submissive and to stop them from breastfeeding. Many weren't allowed to see their babies. There are stories of signatures being forged on adoption consent forms, and cases of suicide. Some women had their own families turn against them. Many now want an apology. There are now grown-up children still traumatised too.

The Senate committee was due to report at the end of June. But the inquiry chairwoman, Greens senator Rachel Siewert, says the response has been so substantial it is likely the date will be extended. ''It's another group of Australians that suffered as a result of government policies,'' she says. ''There's overwhelming calls for an apology and the committee will be carefully considering it.''

In Mrs Kinghorn's case, it was 1963. She was pregnant at 16, a mother at 17. She and her boyfriend wanted to keep their baby. Her parents told her she was a bad girl, and drove him away.

She gave birth to a girl and got to spend a week with her in hospital. Then, she was dragged screaming from the hospital by a nurse and separated from her baby. ''I didn't want to leave my baby,'' she says. She turned to another nurse for help, who put an arm around her and told her: ''Go home and be a good girl.''

They told her if she loved her baby she would give her up, and she would have a baby of her own one day. ''My mother said if I didn't sign the consent my daughter would grow up in an orphanage and how could I be selfish to do that to her?''

She married someone else, still distressed, and had four more children, never forgetting her first. ''When there were photos of my children there was always an empty spot,'' she says.

When her first child was 20, she found out her name by accident - Christine Farmer. She and her husband began trawling through the electoral roll. Her husband found her.

Their first meeting was tense and anxious. ''I still believed I was a tramp and all the things I'd been told and I thought she would be too beautiful and too perfect to want to know me,'' she says. ''It took probably 10 years of having contact with her before I could breathe properly when I was near her.''

Where many reunions are fraught, theirs has gone well. Twenty-seven years after reconnecting, they are still in each other's lives. ''We value what we have, rather than dwelling on what we don't,'' Ms Farmer says.

Her birth father had given Mrs Kinghorn a necklace and earrings that she kept, always wanting to give them to her daughter. Ms Farmer says she was raised by caring parents, but they had always told her to keep the adoption a secret. ''Growing up I was expected to pretend I belonged to the parents that raised me,'' she says. People would look at her and search for physical similarities with her parents that didn't exist.

She understands what happened to women of her mother's generation, but it doesn't repair the damage. It has made her cherish her own children even more. ''History has taught us that we can't trust government policy,'' she says. ''We depend on the moral courage of those in positions of power to advocate for the dignity and best interests of those that are vulnerable.''

110608 Striving to help Korean families thrive in all shapes and sizes - The Korea Herald

2011-06-13T14:12:11P

[The Korea Herald] 2011-06-08

Striving to help Korean families thrive in all shapes and sizes

Less than 60 percent of families in South Korea now fit the model of a nuclear family, Statistics Korea research suggests. As a developed, democratic country, the country should embrace this difference, says Dr. Richard Boas of the Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network.

“Confucian belief defines a family as a father, a mother and their children. Many believe a modern family consists of a married man and woman and their children,” explained Boas in an email interview with The Korea Herald.

Dr. Richard Boas, founder of KUMSN (Richard Frank)

This, he believes, leads to stigma being placed upon unconventional families, with no father or mother present, and can “invalidate” unmarried parents.

His charity is working to change this by advocating for the rights of unwed mothers and their children, helping to ensure they have sufficient resources and support to thrive.

“Marital status does not determine whether a woman can successfully raise her child or not. The women (unwed mothers) are capable, loving mothers, but Korea needs to give them the opportunity,” he said.

Boas, an adoptive father from the U.S., first visited Korea in 2006. During his trip he went to orphanages and met pregnant mothers who felt they had no option but to give their children up for adoption.

Moved by their plight and shocked to find that in the world’s 13th largest economy, there were women who had been “abandoned” in this way, he was inspired to launch KUMSN.

“I realized that I had not truly validated my child’s own mother as loving and capable, a mother who had been effectively pressured to give up her child, years before.

“I asked: What can I do to help ensure that unwed Korean pregnant women and moms can successfully raise their children, just as they are able to do in democracies around the world ― rather than feel compelled to give up their children to adoption?” explained Boas.

Research by the Korean Women’s Development Institute shows that 70 percent of unmarried mothers in Korea relinquish their children, compared to 1 percent in the U.S, according to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.

Of those who keep their children, many suffer economic and social hardships, sometimes losing their jobs or being shunned by their family.

U.S.-based KUMSN, managed by executive director Kwon Hee-jung and a team of staff and volunteers in Seoul, believes this is something Korean society needs to address in its own way.

Operating as a resource, and a body to promote discussion and debate, it has provided grants for research on the issue, as a “matter of social justice” that it is a woman’s right to raise her own child, said Boas, who refers to himself as merely a “respectful outsider.”

KUMSN is “pro mom” and adoption neutral. “Adoption is a valid option, but only after a mother (and/or father) has made a careful, fully informed choice, without pressure, with enough time to make a choice to relinquish ― and reconsider, if necessary.”

Boas believes education and awareness are needed to create the social change Korea is capable of.

From school-age, he said, students are given insufficient and biased sex education which permeates views into adulthood.

“When an unwed Korean woman becomes pregnant, she is deemed to have created her problem, alone. Yet there is always a man involved,” he emphasized, adding, “Men need to understand that they are responsible for the children they father.”

Citing a recent U.S. study, he said that when men are educated to believe they are responsible for the children they father, pregnancy rates go down.

But things do seem to be changing. “Awareness of their (unwed mothers’) situation, and the desire to address it effectively and positively ― among academia, media, government, adoptees, and the moms themselves ― have increased tremendously.

“Support policy is already changing, but it is focused on the 18-24-year-old moms.”

This is a problem as unlike in many Western countries where the issue is teen pregnancy, most unwed moms in Korea are 25 or older, with an average age of 30.

“Many Koreans are now understanding the issue as one of human rights, not a low birthrate issue. However, the actual lives of most moms needs to be improved,” he added.

There are plenty of ways people can get involved to help the cause. Boas recommends not being afraid to discuss the issue, volunteering with charities, contributing to organizations such as the Korea Foundation for Women, and supporting campaigns and events such as Single Mom’s Day which took place for the first time on May 11.

Ultimately he emphasized that “this is a Korean matter,” and the Korean government and society should address it. The primary goal of KUMSN is to ensure it is addressed, and “in a uniquely Korean way that works for Korean society.”

“Ideally, this should be a non-issue, just as it effectively is, for instance, in the U.S., France and Scandinavia. Moms are moms, kids are kids, and their right to equality and validity as a family is something that transcends politics, culture and geography.”

For more information on KUMSN and details of how to get involved, visit www.kumsn.org.

By Hannah Stuart-Leach (hannahsl@heraldm.com)

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110608000868

110520 [JoongAngDaily] A day redefined to honor single moms

2011-05-26T14:47:15P

A day redefined to honor single moms

‘We challenge the government to support children in the families in which they were born.’ - Jane Jeong Trenka

May 20, 2011

The stories of adoptees are often recounted in the media, especially around this time of year, when focus on the government-designated Adoption Day produces articles about adoptees who have returned to Korea or are seeking to reunite with their birth family.

But behind every adoption there is another story to tell about a woman who has surrendered a child, and oftentimes not by choice.

What keeps these women from raising their children is a persistent stigma in a still patriarchal society that says they are unfit to raise their children alone and don’t deserve the social or financial support to do so.

Until recently, their stories remained hidden, a dark secret at the core of the adoption issue.

But many of these women have begun not only to fight the system and demand support for their choice but also to speak about their experiences in an effort to gain recognition for the rights of other women to keep their children.

One adoptee group joined the fight by organizing a Single Moms’ Day on Adoption Day, May 11, to shift the focus from adoption to family preservation. At a conference organized for the occasion, single mothers recounted the sometimes harrowing experiences of seeing their children sent for adoption by relatives or agency workers while adoptees voiced their support for the actions of a single moms group that is working to change the law so future generations will have the option of raising their children.


	Jane Jeong Trenka, far left, and Single Moms’ Day participants distribute cakes celebrating single mothers and those who spent their first birthday away from their family. By Jes Eriksen

Track-ing adoption

Single Moms’ Day was organized by Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea (Track), an adoptee-founded group that advocates for family preservation and adoptee rights; KoRoot, a guesthouse for adoptees returning to Korea; the Korean Unwed Mothers & Families Association (Kumfa), a single mothers’ advocacy group; and the Korean Single Parent Alliance. It included a gift drive, conference and cake give-away and was held May 11 at Community Chest of Korea in Jeong-dong, central Seoul.

“By raising public awareness about this issue, we can challenge the Korean government to meaningfully and sufficiently support children in the families in which they are born instead of sending them for adoption either domestically or internationally,” said Jane Jeong Trenka, a Korean adoptee who was adopted to the United States when she was 6-years-old and the author of two autobiographies and an anthology about adoption.

Single moms speak out

Having few options and little money, one single mother, who wishes to remain anonymous, signed papers relinquishing her rights to her child before giving birth. She was 24-years-old and on her own and it was the best option she could imagine.

But after her daughter was born, she decided she couldn’t bear to give her daughter up and decided to do what she needed to do to raise her. She returned to the agency to try to get the child back, but was unsuccessful, though the agency did allow her visits. The last time she went, the social worker told her that she wouldn’t be able to see the child anymore if she kept asking to get her back. When she persisted, the social worker told her that even if it were possible to reverse the adoption process, she would have to repay the agency the money spent on the baby and the birth.

At the conference, she encouraged the government to support women who want to raise their children and create an environment in which a woman can raise a child on her own.

“A child is not something we can give to someone else,” she said. “Adoption should be considered after the birth mother is given a chance to raise her own child.”

History

The kind of institutionalized international adoption that exists today began on a large-scale following the 1950-53 Korean War with orphaned and mixed-race children. But it is a different entity today, with around 90 percent of international adoptees the children of unwed single mothers.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 158,703 children were adopted abroad from 1953-2005, though some estimates put the number closer to 200,000 because of the large number of unrecorded adoptions.

But of the 1,250 children adopted abroad in 2008, 1,114 were the children of unwed mothers, or 89.1 percent, according to a 2009 study by the state-run Korea Women’s Development Institute.

The Korean government has tried to stem the tide of overseas adoption, most notably following an article published in The Progressive in 1988 that branded the country as a “baby exporting nation.” The article, which appeared ahead of the Summer Olympics in Seoul the same year, shamed the country and lowered adoption rates, but it wasn’t long before the numbers rose again.

Later, in the face of a plunging birth rate, one of the world’s lowest in 2008 at 1.19, the government began making policies to encourage couples to have children - offering money to families with more than three children and, recently, by providing free day care for multiethnic families.

But experts say the government’s effort to boost the birthrate while ignoring the needs of unwed single mothers is indicative of its bias against these women, who are viewed as unfit to raise their children.

The government created Adoption Day in 2005 to promote domestic and reduce international adoption.

Although the international adoption rate is on the decline, with 1,125 children adopted abroad in 2010, the increase in domestic adoption has been minimal, from 1,306 children in 2008 to 1,314 in 2009, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

At the conference, Trenka pointed out that the imbalance in gender roles has had a significant impact on women’s rights and unwed single mothers in particular.

Lack of adequate social-welfare support, Trenka said, is another obstacle for single women raising a child. She cited a 2010 Alternative Report by Korean NGOs to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, that said child and family expenditures accounted for 1.7 percent of the national budget, the lowest level among OECD countries.

Conference participant Gahm Eun-nam, a single mother, spoke about her own struggle to apply for welfare support.

When she went to register as the head of a single-parent family, she was told she was ineligible because she earns more than 800,000 won ($737) a month.

“Wealthy or poor, old or young, single mothers share similar problems,” Gahm said. “It is not right to equate our social status with the amount of money we make.”

Many of the experts and single mothers who spoke at the conference pointed to a need for greater social acceptance of a woman’s right to raise her child, in addition to an increase in welfare support.

Choi Young-hee, a Democratic Party lawmaker, is working on a revision to the country’s Special Adoption Law in a coalition with several groups including the Single Moms’ Day event organizers. She said that through the law, which shifts the focus of the current law from adoption promotion to family preservation, she would strive to set a new paradigm for single mothers and adoption.

“Children in adoptive and foster families get 1.07 million won per year from the government,” Choi said. “But a single mother raising a child only receives a monthly subsidy of 50,000 won until the child turns 12. We are now challenging this archaic system.”

Though the law revision, which is set to be considered in an upcoming National Assembly session, focuses largely on adoption, there are also provisions for single mothers, most notably a requirement for unbiased counseling that is free from adoption agency interference.

At the conference, several adoptees spoke about their experiences, including Jes Erikson, a Danish adoptee, who also discussed his view of Korean society.

“I grew up in a society with a very robust welfare system in which equal opportunity, including gender equality, is a primary asset. So I find it only natural to question which laws and social norms constitute the root causes for inequality,” he said. “And this is why I find it interesting to question the system of overseas adoption as a symptom of an underlying social infrastructure that can and should be changed over time.”

During the conference, all of the single moms, whether their child had been relinquished for adoption or not, pointed to the social stigma against single mothers in Korean society. But what’s changed is that more of them are willing to stand and be recognized.

“I’m ready to go out in public and say I’m a single mother. I’m ready to say that out loud, but I don’t know if the public is ready to accept me as I am, and of course my child as well,” said Choi Hyong-sook, a single mother.

Choi has a 7-year-old boy who used to ask why people called his mom a “single mom” and Choi remembered having to explain her situation to him. Now, she says, he is proud to be the son of a single mother. He even says it out loud in restaurants when talking to his friends, she said.

“I’m happy he is not ashamed of who his mother is, and he doesn’t need to be,” Choi said. “But it hurts when I sense how other people at the restaurants stare at him.”

By Lee Sun-min [summerlee@joongang.co.kr]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2936429

110506 Single Moms’ Day shifts focus to family preservation

2011-05-12T16:58:16P

Single Moms’ Day shifts focus to family preservation

TRACK and KoRoot to host international conference May 11 placing the spotlight on single moms

By Lee You-jin　

May 11 is “Adoption Day.” The government created the day in 2006 to activate for domestic adoption. Every year around this time, however, there are people whose hearts are cut to pieces. They are the mothers whose children were sent overseas. The Dandelion parents’ group is a group of mothers who were compelled to send their children overseas for adoption in the 1970s and 1980s. The mothers formed the group three years ago to commiserate, help one another and share information on their children visiting Korea. Most of the 12 members have been reunited with their children.

“It is another start. Because we cannot communicate due to language, I cannot explain, and even if it is a bit insufficient, I want to say it’s all my fault... Overseas adoption, to those involved, is a pain that must be endured for a lifetime.”

Noh Keum-ju (Noh Myung-ja), 52, the chairwoman of the group, said, “Before 2005, when I was reunited with my son, I did not even know the phrase ‘overseas adoption,’ and I assumed he was living in Korea.”

Noh continued, “Without my knowledge, my husband’s family sent my child to an ob/gyn and signed a statement relinquishing parental rights. Later, I found out the hospital sent my son to an institution, and the country [Korea] sold my child off. My world collapsed when I heard the news.”

“When I was 18 and working in a factory, I gave birth to Seong-wook (35, living in South Dakota, United States) due to an unwanted pregnancy. My starvation was so serious that I was unable to lactate. My husband gambled and was never around, and the next year, while I was away for a month, I lost my child,” said Noh. “I went out of my mind, so I went to find him.” 30 years later, she found him again.

Through the adoptee-founded organization Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link (G.O.A.’L.) assisting returning adoptees, Seong-wook found her first.

At a glance, she could tell, “He looks just like me. He is my child.”

His face, however, revealed the gloom of his own family troubles. Listening to his story with difficulty, she learned he grew up without the appropriate help from his adopted parents. He started his own family at a young age, and they were poor, and his daughter even developed a heart condition. Noh said she felt most sorry that she could not help him though she wanted to because of her situation, despite being his birth mother.

Their story was the subject of adoptee filmmaker Tammy Chu’s documentary film “Resilience.” The film was shot over a three-year period and premiered at the Busan International Film Festival. Noh also made Chu, who met her birth mother before she passed away at an early age, an adopted daughter.

May 11 is the first “Single Mom’s Day,” created by adoption and single mother groups. Noh plans to tell her story at an international conference that day at the Community Chest Auditorium hosted by Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea (TRACK) and KoRoot, a guest house for overseas adoptees returning to South Korea.

“Society will only change if mothers like me show themselves more. I am a mother whose child was sent for overseas adoption, and a single mother. If a base is created so that single mothers can also raise their children, the nation’s concerns about adoption will also disappear,” said Noh. “We must lessen the pain that must be suffered to the day they die by those affected by overseas adoption.”

Kwon Hee-jong, a coordinator at the Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network (KUMSN), said, “70 percent of the mothers at state-supported facilities relinquish their children for adoption, while in the United States, the ratio of mothers who give up their children is just 1 percent.”

Kwon added, “It is absolutely necessary that we eliminate prejudices so that birthmothers can raise their children on their own and expand support before encouraging adoption.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/476672.html

110511 Adoption Ad Stirs Controversy

2011-05-12T16:39:32P

Adoption Ad Stirs Controversy

[The Wall Street Journal]

2011-05-11

By Jaeyeon Woo

One of the hot topics online in South Korea today, the sixth Adoption Day, was a soon-to-be-aired baby commercial by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Screen capture of the commercial

The issue surfaced late last month when the ministry said it planned to air the commercial, the first of its kind, featuring babies who are waiting to be adopted. The ad is part of its campaign to “find homes to those on the waiting list for adoption,”1,800 in total, and to “accelerate the adoption process.” The one-minute-long clip shows the potential adoptee and basic information including physical characteristics and contact number.

Though it may be well-intentioned, the commercial triggered concerns about privacy and whether it will effectively promote domestic adoption.

In an apparent effort to dispel privacy worries, the ministry said it reviewed potential legal issues and it emphasized that the strategy has been used in the U.S. and U.K. and proved effective in encouraging adoption.

But many remain doubtful.

“In Korean society where open adoption is not common, we remain very skeptical how [the commercial] can have a positive effect in promoting domestic adoption,” an opposition Progressive Party said in a statement.

The statement also noted the urgent need to improve “welfare policies for single parents who shoulder the burden of child-rearing in a challenging situation,” and emphasized “reducing the number of adoptees takes priority over adoption promotion.”

Adoption has been always a sensitive issue in Korea, one of the world’s biggest sources of overseas adoption. According to the data from the ministry, a total of 19,345 children were sent overseas for adoption from 2000 to 2010. The issue is a web of complicated, hard problems—longstanding social emphasis on blood-related family, social welfare system which some say inadequate, and a deep-rooted bias toward unwed mothers and their children.

One positive trend has been seen: The number of overall adoptees has nearly halved over the past decade, to 2,475 in 2010 from 4,206 in 2001. Another notable trend is that domestic adoption slightly increased, to 1,462 in 2010 from 1,314 in 2009.

Today, the ministry said it will help overseas adoptees find their biological families and introduce legislation to ease the financial burden on adopting families and to protect the rights of adoptees.

http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2011/05/11/adoption-ad-stirs-controversy/

110511 Promoting Adoptions

2011-05-12T16:22:43P

Promoting Adoptions

[Koreatimes]

2011-05-11

Time to scrap overseas quota system

The government’s policy of encouraging adoptions among domestic families has made little progress due mainly to prejudice and discrimination against adoption. This means that the nation cannot address the problem without taking bolder measures to improve public awareness about adoption.

According to a survey by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, 32.1 percent of respondents said they do not want to adopt children because it is difficult to raise them as if they were their birth children. And 29.5 percent cited the family system with strong blood ties, followed by financial burden (11.9 percent) and prejudice against adoption (11.4 percent).

People’s attitude toward adoption has changed to a certain degree amid rapid socioeconomic changes arising from industrialization and urbanization. However, Koreans still have deeply-rooted Confucian values that emphasize blood ties. Therefore, they are still reluctant to adopt children.

A rigid policy of bringing overseas adoption of Korean children in check has been also blamed for a decline in the total number of orphans finding new homes. The nation introduced a yearly quota for international adoptions in 2007 to shake off its image as a “baby exporter.”

The quota system had an effect of cutting the number of children adopted by foreign families to 1,300 in 2008 from 2,200 in 2004. The number fell further to 1,000 last year and is expected to drop further to 900 this year. However, this policy has failed to encourage local families to offset the decrease in the international adoptions. That’s why the quota was responsible for leaving more orphans without finding their foster families.

In 2000, 44.5 percent of children waiting for adoption find their new family at home and abroad. But the percentage dived to 27.5 percent in 2008. The government seemed to have achieved its goal of improving its tainted image by curtailing overseas adoptions. But the inconvenient truth is that the policy has dealt a setback to the overall adoption promotions.

Against this backdrop, voices are growing for the scrapping of the overseas adoption quota. Policymakers should not turn a deaf ear to the calls as more and more orphans are held hostage by the quota system.

It goes without saying that the best policy option is to prevent children being abandoned by their own parents. More than 90 percent of babies born to unwed single mothers continue to be sent to adoption agencies due to a lack of means for childcare.

Now, it’s time for the government to overhaul its adoption policies. First, it should stage a national campaign to help the people have better awareness about adoption. Second, it must increase state support for families with adoptees. Third, it has to extend more assistance to young unwed moms so that they can raise their children on their own.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2011/05/137_86824.html

110511 Korea Celebrates 6th Adoption Day to Promote Domestic Adoption

2011-05-12T16:19:29P

Korea Celebrates 6th Adoption Day to Promote Domestic Adoption

[Arirang News]
2011-05-11

The Korean government designated May 11th Adoption Day in 2006 to boost adoption rates within the country.
And this year, some 1-thousand government officials, social workers and adoptive parents participated in a special event in Seoul.

[Interview : Lee Hwa-sup, Adoptive parent] "People worry that they might not be happy because adopted children are not related to them. But look, we're a very happy, loving family. When a beautiful child joins your family, it brings so much joy."

The government started a new service on Wednesday, connecting adoption agencies and parents seeking to adopt a child, which will provide more information for both sides.
And, although it is important to raise awareness about adoption, some say it is equally important to help change society's perception of single mothers.

"May 11th was also chosen as Single Mom's Day, to raise public awareness about the connection between adoption and single mothers and the discrimination the women face."

Several Korean organizations, including TRACK and KoRoot, came together to organize the first international conference on single mothers and a special party where adoptees and women who gave up their children spoke up.
Supporters say there is a prejudice against single mothers in Korea and this is driving up the number of children being given up for adoption.

[Interview : Kim Do-hyun, Director
KoRoot] "More than 2-thousand-4-hundred Korean children were adopted domestically and internationally last year, with 90 percent of them from single mothers. We want to support women who decide to raise their babies alone and our society must work together to make things easier for these mothers."

Experts demand that the government revise its adoption law so that mothers have at least 30 days to decide before giving up their child.
They also argue that the mothers need more support and that stricter measures are crucial when assessing potential adoptive parents.

(Oh Jee-hyun : Arirang News.)

Reporter : jhoh@arirang.co.kr

http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=115841&code=Ne2&category=2

110505[The Korea Herald]First Korean Single Mom’s Day

2011-05-12T16:01:32P

First Korean Single Mom’s Day
2011-05-05 14:28

Celebrations during Korea’s family month of May are to recognize single mothers in the country’s first ever Single Mom’s Day.

Unwed mothers and their children are to be celebrated and supported at a conference exploring issues ranging from international adoption to the discrimination these small families often face.

Attendees will celebrate the event on May 11 by sharing enough birthday cakes to feed 1,000 people outside Kyobo bookstore in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun.

The cakes made by Mi n Mi Cake bakery will be given out at the bookstore’s sunken garden at 12 p.m. to wish a collective happy birthday to kids raised by single moms ― who often lack support in Korea.

Children will also be given presents bought through a gift drive for the conference hosted by the Korean Unwed Mothers and Families Association (Miss Mama Mia), the Korean Single Parent Association, Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea and KoRoot.

Miss Mamma Mia member, Jo Su-yung, 41, who requested a toy car for her son through the gift drive, told why she decided on raising her child without a husband on falling pregnant: “Forty is somewhat of an old age, so I decided to have my child. It has been hard, but I don’t regret it one bit and we are living a strong and bright life together.”

The international conference aims to raise awareness about challenges facing single mothers, and to encourage the Korean government to provide more support to help them raise their children rather than feeling the need to resort to adoption.

An unwed mother with her baby taken at a support group facility. (Jeanne Modderman)

TRACK president Jane Jeong Trenka, who has written three books about her own experiences as a Korean adoptee in America, said: “We decided to organize single mom’s day because this year is the 6th year that the government and adoption agencies have organized adoption day to promote domestic adoption.

“Since around 90 percent of Korean children put up for adoption come from single moms, we want to promote family preservation and support for them rather than adoption.”

Kwon Hee-jung, executive director of event sponsor, the Korean Unwed Mothers’ Support Network, which also works to change attitudes toward unwed mothers, agreed: “Our society has not accepted their (unwed mothers’) right to be mothers for a long time and the majority of people naturally think they are supposed to give up their babies for adoption.

“This is against human rights and now it is time to recognize motherhood out of marriage as legitimate as motherhood inside marriage.”

Unlike in many Western countries, Korean single mothers are often aged 25 or older.

Single mother Kim Deuk-won, 33, said: “Education is so important because I believe it is the most efficient way to change prejudices around us.”

The international conference titled, “Redefining Family: Moving from Adoption to Family Preservation” is to be held at the Community Chest of Korea conference room on May 11 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Speakers will discuss official positions on international adoption as well as hearing first-hand stories from international adoptees and single mothers.

One such mother, Choi Hyung Sook, has stood up to tell her story ― in the face of discrimination by those around her.

She initially gave her baby up for adoption after becoming pregnant at the age of 35. The father refused to be involved in the child’s life, and her older brother warned her that raising the baby would affect their parents too.

“In Korean society, raising a baby alone is not just my problem,” she explained, referring to the stigma imparted on the entire family.

But when she took her son back to care for him herself she was forced to close her beauty shop after people discovered she was an unwed mother. After the local press reported that she did not have a husband, people began calling to check that it was true.

After six months, sales dropped, and coworkers began discriminating against her. “The drop in sales was difficult, but more difficult was the hurt I received from other people,” she said.

“These people were like my family, they came to my home and we ate together. But because I am an unwed mother ... they thought badly of me.”

Although she has struggled financially and emotionally, she says she has no regrets.

“Even though life is difficult, when I see my son smile, I live for that.”

No registration is required for the International Conference and freewill donations are accepted from those attending on the day. Visit http://justicespeaking.wordpress.com for more information, details on donating to the gift drive or to contribute in other ways.

By Hannah Stuart-Leach (hannahsl@heraldm.com)

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110504000899