Greetings,
I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to participate in a new project that our organization, the International Educational & Cultural Exchange Foundation (IECEF) is currently working on for Korean adoptees.
IECEF’s Adoptee Support Center is primarily staffed by Korean adoptees with the assistance of Korean staff. We provide assistance to adoptees who want to return to Korea for both short-term and long-term stays. This includes assisting with birth family search through postings on our website, and distributing brochures and leaflets throughout Korea. We recognize however, that the process of searching for birth families can be a very long one and we believe that other continuous efforts, even in addition to newspaper articles and television interviews are necessary.
Considering this, IECEF plans to publish a book series which will contain letters from adoptees to birth parents, in both English and Korean languages. It is our hope that this book can be helpful in different and important ways. Ultimately, we hope that this book will help adoptees find their birth families. We believe that it is important to remove the social stigma and shame that surrounds Korean adoption, and for adoption to be discussed more openly in Korean society. For some of these changes to occur there is a role Korean adoptees can play by sharing our histories with Korean people.
As Korean adoptees we have the best insight about our own experiences. If you would like to write a letter to your birth family for this first book, we encourage you to write candidly and there is no limit on the length of letters. You may also disclose as much identifying information as you would like or you may remain anonymous. Pictures sent in any form are also welcome and will be included with your letter. Our goal is to finish publication of this book before the Adoptee Gathering 2004 and to be able to distribute them during that time. We hope to publish this book as a continuous series and include all letters that we receive both now and in the future.
If you are interested in submitting a letter for this project, the deadline for submissions to our office is July 24th, 2004. Please send them to: molly@iecef.org
You may also email this address if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Jessica EunYung Fairbanks
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