The History of MPAK

A Special Greeting Message from the late Bertha "Grandma" Holt

 The Mission Statement:

We are dedicated to the Mission to Promote Adoption in Korea. As an organization driven by the Christian principles, we believe it is God's will that children have families of their own. It is our goal to enable many Korean families to open their hearts and homes to the needy children in Korea.

The above mission statement will be accomplished by carrying out the following duties we have placed on ourselves:

1) Advocating the needs of homeless children in Korea.

2) Removing the negative social stigma attached to homeless children and adoptees.

3) Enabling Koreans to overcome fear in adoption.

4) Encouraging Koreans to adopt openly and not secretly.

Clarification: MPAK's definition of "open adoption" is that families who adopt in Korea be open about their adoption experience and not adopt secretly. We do not mean "open records" where all records related to birth parents, and adoptees are opened before those involved in the adoption process. Often adoptees or birth parents view these records in later years to locate one another. There are several organizations composed of adoptees that strongly advocate "open records" adoption. Open records adoption is not an issue we choose to cover. It is a separate issue. Our emphasis is in promoting adoption so that homeless children can have families of their own.

Why We Are Doing This:

1) The responsibility of helping homeless Korean children lies 100% with Koreans. Each year, hundreds of Korean children are placed in loving homes in the US and in Europe. We strongly support foreign adoption and believe it should continue. However, even greater numbers of children are left homeless in Korea who are not adopted. Who will help these children in Korea? It is the responsibility of the Koreans to open up their hearts and homes to these children.

2) Another reason is that Korea is phasing out the foreign adoption program gradually. In a few years the foreign adoption program will be closed completely (see LA Times Article). Unfortunately for children, whether there is an increase in the number of Koreans adopting them or not, the foreign adoption program will come to an end. Most of the children will grow up in orphanages. The only way to help them is to speak on their behalf by promoting adoption in Korea. MPAK was formed to be a voice for the remaining homeless children in Korea.

"Every Child Deserves a Home of His Own." - Harry Holt, Founder of the Holt International Children's Services, Inc.

MPAK's Challenges:

Challenge No. 1: The challenge is to change the centuries old and deeply-rooted cultural mentality of the Koreans to embrace the concept of adoption as something beautiful and worthy, and to encourage them to practice open adoption (see Clarification above) rather than secret adoption. The secret adoption is the result of being fearful of how other Koreans may think negatively of those who adopt and their adopted children. This is the reason why adoption in Korea is not popular. People usually don't do something they fear being embarrassed. Our mission is to convince Koreans of the beauty in adoption, and enable them to overcome the fear of adoption with courage, thereby making the concept of adoption more acceptable to them. This will result in a greater number of homeless children finding homes each year. We are not out to change the Korean society overnight. We intend to keep on promoting adoption for as long as it takes, until Koreans are as open to the concept of adoption as they are in the Western world. This is MPAK's core challenge.

Challenge No. 2: In order to carry out the mission of MPAK, we need to establish support bases both in the US and in Korea in the following ways:

Enlist the support of caring individuals or groups who can join MPAK and work together.
Enlist people who are willing to donate their time.
Enlist financial sponsors - individual donors, or supports from various churches, groups, organization, or companies.
Organize infrastructure to carry out various activities.
Above all, we need prayers of people with hearts and passion for helping homeless children.

Founder's Speeches:

An Adoptee's Perspective in Korean Adoption

The Gathering of the Seeds from the East