Note:
*While this website is mostly geared toward Adoptees who were adopted through the Korean Adoption Agency Korea Social Service (KSS), there is also information here which is relevant to ALL Korean Adoptees, regardless of their Korean Adoption Agency. Please read carefully to note what info. is purely relevant to KSS Adoptees and what is generally relevant to ALL Korean Adoptees.
The Adoption Struggle Is Strongly Related To The Democracy Struggle.
We were recently struck by the comment of a long-time Korean Adoption Activist who said, the "Adoption struggle is strongly related to the Democracy struggle".
Most of us who are Korean Adoptees grew up in Western societies in which democracy is the norm and taken for granted, but we easily forget or don't know that during the decades in which the majority of us were adopted, Korea was run by a series of dictators who did not respect human rights.
Korea has only really been democratic since the late 1980s and it is not as though things just shifted overnight in terms of Korean mindset. In very real ways, we as Adoptees are still grappling with non-democratic conditions when we attempt to find the truth in our stories.
Oftentimes when we go back to Korea, we as Western raised adults face the hard reality of the residual effect of a previously non-democratic society.
We think knowing this helps to frame the context in which our often fake paperwork was created, and the persistent difficulties many of us face when trying to find the truth about our origin.