hankyoreh

Overseas Koreans Foundation President and CEO Kim Sung-gon (provided by the Overseas Koreans Foundation)

“When I traveled to Korea in 2010, I ran into an adoptee friend, and the two of us went to visit Holt [adoption agency]. It was then that I learned that my biological parents were desperately looking for me. I wanted to know more about my parents and about the roots that I had turned away from. That’s why I decided to officially apply to visit my homeland.”

This is the story of Lianne Yoon Hee Bronzo, a Korean adoptee living in the US.

Another adoptee named Jany Audrain (Korean name Lee Hee-seon), who heads a Korean adoptee association in the French city of Nantes, said, “I’m very proud of my birth country of Korea.”

“I’ve learned a lot about it while earning a black belt in taekwondo over the past 12 years. I’ve also been looking for my birth mother and sister, although we’ve been able to communicate via social media,” she added.

“During my visit, I want to visit the World Taekwondo Headquarters [Kukkiwon] and see my family,” she explained.

Kolja Mansoo Hohlfeld, an adoptee living in Germany, said, “After joining the adoptee community in 2017, I became an executive with the association Koreanische Adoptierte Deutschland (KAD e.V.), where I’ve been working to inform Korean adoptees around the world about their homeland.”

“I’m also planning to move to Korea in the near future,” he added.

Forty-eight overseas Korean adoptees from various backgrounds will be attending the 2021 Gathering for Overseas Korean Adoptees, which is taking place from Saturday to Monday at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul.

(provided by the Overseas Koreans Foundation)

Organized by the Overseas Koreans Foundation (OKF), the simultaneous online and offline event is expected to include around 330 participants in Korea and overseas.

The three-day event includes various programs for participants, including talk concerts where individuals talk about their roots and what a homeland visit means to them; a group leaders’ forum, in which representatives of Korean adoptee groups discuss adoptee issues and develop proposals for the South Korean government; networking sessions in which participants can learn about each other through traditional Korean pastimes and other activities.

Additionally, there will be info sessions for sharing information about the Nationality Act and citizenship recovery, as well as family search services offered by government agencies to overseas adoptees. The event will also organize Korean cultural experiences in which participants can learn about traditional Korean crafts and taekwondo.

Kim Sung-gon, who served four terms in the National Assembly and served as its secretary general before becoming president of the OKF in November 2020, said the event “is designed to be a forum for connection, bringing together the stories of overseas adoptees that have been scattered across time and space so that they can learn about ‘us’ and weave together each other’s hearts through connection, sharing, and communication.”

He added that he intends to do his utmost to provide an opportunity for overseas adoptees to learn and understand more about their homeland and discover their own identities.

All programs are to take place in Korean, English and French and will be broadcast live on the event’s official website (OKAG21.Korean.net) for online participants.

By Kim Kyung-ae, senior staff writer

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