Week of events marks Adoption Day

The Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs today celebrates the fourth anniversary of Adoption Day with a week of events.

In 2005, the government designated May 11 as a day for adoption awareness in an effort to improve the nation`s attitudes toward adoption. Established in the family month of May, the 11 indicates that one family adopts one child to become a new family.



As part of the programs to mark the day and the following week for adoption, the ministry will hold a ceremonial event today at the COEX convention center, southern Seoul, with participation of some 1,000 guests including members of adoptive families, related organizations and ordinary citizens.

A total of 34 people will be honored with awards for contributions related to adoption issues.

Min Kyung-tae, president of Holt Children`s Services, will be awarded the order of merit for his efforts helping abandoned children find new families for the last 27 years and taking care of children who are rarely adopted due to disabilities.

Other recipients include Bae Tae-soon, a social welfare professor at Kyungnam University, who has contributed to the development of adoption law and study on adoption issues, and Kim Young-bok, director general of Eastern Social Welfare Society, who has overseen domestic and foreign adoptions and handled post-adoption problems.

Since the 1950s, many Korean children have been sent abroad for adoption, mostly to the United States, because of the nation`s traditional emphasis on family bloodlines and reluctance to adopt.

In order to rid the nation`s shameful reputation surrounding adoption and encourage more local adoptions, the government has offered various financial incentives and health benefits for prospective adoptive families since 2005.

Thanks to such government measures and changed social attitudes toward adoption, the number of local adoptions surpassed that of overseas adoptions for the first time in 2007.

According to the health ministry, a total of 2,553 children were adopted last year - the lowest number on record, largely due to the slowing overall growth rate. Of them, 1,303 were adopted by Korean parents while 1,250 found homes overseas.

By Lee Ji-yoon



(jylee@heraldm.com)