Dear Korean American Adoptees and Adoptive Families,
I have the great honor to deliver this congratulatory message on the first national Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network Conference in place of Ambassador Kim Bongkyu, the Chairman of the Overseas Koreans Foundation. The OKF is an affiliated organization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Korea. The OKF was founded to connect all Koreans living abroad, including Korean Adoptees into one active and fluid network in 1997. Today we gather in one place to take a first step to develop strong ties with adoptees and adoptive families nationwide, to build a bridge between adoptees and their birth families and there-by increasing exchanges and cooperation between them.
The most impressive thing that I have ever experienced is to see that all of you have grown up to be such confident and bright ladies and gentlemen. I would like to express my sincere gratitude and admiration to your adoptees parents, who have taken care of adopted children with love and devotion.
Looking back at modern Korean history, Korea has been faced with many obstacles from the Korean War to the present one year of IMF. There was once a time when we lived considering poverty as our destiny on the ashes of the Korean War. Also we gained acknowledgement from the world by the so called miracle of the Han River. With hard work and strong will in a short period, Korean people suffered from economic crisis again last year. In the process of overcoming these hardships, a number of Korean babies were sent all over the world as adoptees. Most Korean people feel sorry for this – one of the saddest parts of Korean history.
Otherwise it is said that where there is a will, there is a way. Despite the hardships you have been faced with, we believe that you might take opportunities to develop into high profile individuals full of confidence and competence in America, the multi-cultural society not just as adoptees, but as promising Korean Americans. Recently, as a number of grown up adoptees visited their motherland, Korean people started to pay attention to the adoption issues with care and interest, seeking to establish a communication network between adoptees and their motherland.
The OKF , the Korean based representative organization for overseas Koreans made efforts to strengthen the tie with Korean adoptees, their families and the Korean motherland. In doing so, we expect that exchanges and cooperation between them are extended in time. The OKF invites Korean adoptees abroad to their motherland to enrich their knowledge and understanding of Korea and to identify with their ethnic and family roots. The OKF supports programs of adoption agencies as well. Sharing the same goals with the American based KAAN, the OKF will strive to promote Korean American adoptees rights and benefit both America and Korea. Therefore, in closing, I would like to extend my deep thanks to all the staff and organizers for their every effort to set this conference into action successfully. I hope that the first national conference will bear fruit as all of us expect.
Thank you very much!