Here are our top 5 facts about adopting from Thailand:

1. The minimum age for adoptive parents is 25.

For younger couples who want to start a family through adoption, Thailand is a great choice. Couples can have up to one child in their home prior to submitting their application to adopt a child from Thailand, and couples with a child can request to be matched with a child of the opposite gender. Childless couples must be open to a child of either gender. Adoptions from Thailand, while limited, have remained stable.

2. Most children adopted from Thailand are about 2 years old.

Even though the process to adopt a child from Thailand takes 2-3 years, most children are under 2 years old at time of match and under 3 years old at the time they join their families, and families are needed for children of both genders. Of course, if you are interested in older child adoption, there are many older children in Thailand who are waiting for their permanent, loving families.

3. Our partners in Thailand strive to keep families together and help parents make informed decisions regarding their children. This is something for adoptive parents to celebrate too!

Holt’s longstanding partner in Thailand, Holt Sahathai Foundation (HSF), is a prominent leader of child welfare services and women’s rights advocacy. Since 1976, HSF has helped struggling families stay together through counseling, financial assistance, vocational training, educational sponsorship and income-generating projects. Because single mothers still face discrimination in Thailand, HSF provides shelter, healthcare, postnatal care and counseling to help them cope with discrimination and make an informed decision about whether to parent or relinquish their child. About 80 percent of women who receive HSF support choose to parent their children. Those who do not are well educated regarding their decision. Holt always works to ensure the highest ethical practices in adoption, and HSF is a top-notch reflection of that commitment.

4. HSF lovingly cares for children from day one.

Most children in Holt’s Thailand adoption program spend the first several weeks of life with their birth mothers and then are placed directly into loving foster families. HSF was the first organization to implement foster care in Thailand, providing a more nurturing alternative to institutional care. In the years since, HSF’s foster care program in Thailand has become the model for both governmental and non-governmental childcare institutions in the region. While children wait to join their permanent family, foster families ensure children reach critical developmental milestones, receive proper nutrition and develop vital emotional bonds. Holt also receives a detailed child progress report every four months, which contains an update on the child’s health and developmental milestones, along with new photos to share with the child’s prospective family.

5. Children from Thailand need loving, permanent families.

While Thailand’s economy has grown significantly over the past decade, poverty persists, especially in many rural regions — leaving children vulnerable to family separation or abandonment. While HSF is working to combat the enduring stigma toward single mothers, many young women still choose to relinquish or abandon their children. Over the past decade, the HIV epidemic orphaned nearly half a million children as well. For these reasons and others, many children in Thailand need international adoption to be able to join a permanent, loving family. HSF was founded on the belief that every child deserves to grow up feeling the love and joy of a family.

If you would like more information about adopting a child from Thailand, contact our adoption advisors at adopt@holtinternational.org.

Adopt From Thailand

Many children in Thailand are waiting for a loving, permanent family.

thailand adoption info

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Cambodia 

Holt Cambodia celebrated the recruitment of five more potential foster families in Phnom Penh in January. This is part of an initiative Holt began in 2016 in partnership with the Cambodian government and other child welfare agencies to help build a model of foster care, kinship care and domestic adoption in the country — an alternative to institutionalization for the thousands of children in Cambodia who are living in orphanages.  

China 

To help the children celebrate Chinese New Year across the various provinces where we work, Holt China staff prepared gifts and activities for children to enjoy. At the HIV Group Home, children made steam buns to celebrate the arrival of the new year — they were so happy and grateful!  

Colombia 

Holt’s partner organization in Colombia, Bambi, has a donor-supported program that empowers parents with the skills and training they need to create a better life for their children. This group of parents just completed lessons that focused on attachment styles and the prevention of abuse and neglect. Families were grateful to learn tools for healthy conflict resolution, discipline, and how to achieve healthy attachments with their children — with many parents saying that this training brought transformational change personally and within their family.  

Ethiopia 

After nearly four years in the economic empowerment program, 47 families in rural Ethiopia are preparing to graduate the program. These vulnerable families struggled to recover financially after the pandemic, but with continued support from Holt and our partner, KTZ-OVC, they now have successful small businesses — such as weaving businesses, selling produce and raising livestock — that are creating sustainable income, a way out of poverty and the means to independently provide for their children.  

Haiti 

In December, Holt Haiti — in partnership with the Haitian Central Authority — organized and presented a training on child rights and protection for about 50 orphanage administrators, caregivers and other professionals who work with children. Additionally, in the impoverished community of Bigarousse, a new cohort of 25 women have been enrolled in Holt’s economic empowerment program. These single moms are beginning their business training, and will soon receive microloans to begin small business of their own  — empowering them to earn an income and support their children.  

India  

Holt’s partner organization in Bangalore, Vathsalya Charitable Trust (VCT), trained 151 mothers and young women across the communities and centers in which they work, as well as women from government-run shelters for women and girls. They learned how to handle expenses, meet deadlines for their business orders, and earn income. VCT is also continuing its support groups for single mothers and mothers who have experienced domestic violence.  

Mongolia 

Through Mongolia’s brutal sub-zero temperatures in the winter, families typically stay warm with a coal burning stove in the middle of the dwelling. But this not only creates a burn hazard for children, but can also cause fire to the structure. Earlier this winter, we received an emergency request for assistance for a family whose ger caught fire — severely injuring their young son and resulting in a total loss of all the family’s possessions. Holt was able to respond immediately with generous support from a donor. With this help, we were able to provide medical care to the child who was burned, and help the family replace their home and many of their possessions.  

Philippines 

At the beginning of February, Holt Health and Nutrition staff and the staff of our partner agency, Kaisahang Buhay Foundation (KBF), presented at a five-day Child Nutrition Program Training of Trainers in the Philippines. With houseparents, nurses, and social workers from four local orphanages and child welfare organizations in attendance, they learned how to measure and track children’s nutrition and growth, feeding children with disabilities, and more. 
 

Thailand  

Holt’s local partner in Thailand, Holt Sahathai Foundation (HSF) has been busy with many group activities for the children and parents in their programs! First, they facilitated a support group activity for families to share their positive parenting experiences and lessons they’ve learned in raising their children. For the new year, HSF gathered 523 people (155 adults, 274 children and 94 volunteers) in their programs and the surrounding community for a celebration. Finally, 207 parents, children and staff from our daycare centers gathered for evaluations of children in the program and training for parents on proper health care and child development.  

Uganda 

The Ministry of Health in Uganda contacted Holt Uganda to support their efforts to reach communities in Mukono district, an impoverished and under-resourced district in Uganda. Through our partner, Vitamin Angels, we were able to provide Vitamin A supplements and deworming tablets to 37,000 children there — vital health and nutrition interventions that will prevent chronic malnutrition and illness.  

Learn more about Holt’s work and history!

At Holt International, we help children thrive in the love and stability of a family. But our services extend far beyond the adoption work we are known for.

learn about holt

The post Notes From the Field: March 2023 appeared first on Holt International.

China

Holt China’s project staff recently attended a training entitled “Protection of Minors and Professional Construction of Children’s Social Work.” This training covered the history and construction of China‘s protection system for minors. Project staff gained a deep understanding of the training contents and how they may apply it to projects they oversee.  

Colombia

In Colombia, Holt works alongside local partner organization Bambi to help strengthen families at risk of separation. One way they help strengthen families is by helping them start a small business to generate income. Among the current group of families in this program, parents and caregivers have completed their entrepreneurship training and are now preparing to launch their micro-enterprises. Many of the participants at this stage have invested in bakery and confection professions. 

Haiti

In recent months, we’ve seen a gradual return to school for children in four of the five schools in Haiti that Holt sponsors and donors support with nutrition and educational resources. Elementary-grade children have been receiving tutoring from three teachers at the school until all schools reopen. Attendance is low at the reopened schools due to the fuel shortage and low access to transportation. However, children are gradually returning to class and the schools are starting to welcome their full numbers back to classrooms.

The Philippines

Kaisahang Buhay Foundation (KBF), Holt’s partner organization in the Philippines, has been busy distributing school supplies to 637 children and other school needs to 436 students in Holt’s educational sponsorship program. KBF also held a parenting training session on stress management for 234 parents, and conducted field visits to distribute food to children and monitor the Supplemental Feeding Services (SFS) — a program that aims to improve the nutrition in a child’s first 120 days, a critical time of physical and cognitive development.

South Korea

Holt International and our longstanding partner organization, Holt Children’s Services of Korea, held events in Korea to celebrate the Christmas season and deliver gifts to the residents and children at the Holt Ilsan Center for individuals with special needs, Jeonju Babies’ Home care center for children, and mother and child shelters in Daejeon. 

Thailand

Holt’s longstanding partner in Thailand, Holt Sahathai Foundation (HSF), continues to give timely responses to all individuals and families who express a need for emergency food supplies or counseling for unplanned pregnancies. HSF has also held many activity sessions over the last months. Some of these activities included teen group meetings and a children and families club, where the participants learned about child rights, the importance of child nutrition in the first three years, and how to be a capable and confident teen parent.  

Vietnam

As Holt’s previous country director, Hang Dam, joined Holt’s staff in the U.S., Holt’s Vietnam team has now completed the recruitment of a new country director to oversee all family strengthening and adoption programs in Vietnam! We were excited to welcome Ms. Huong Nguyen to the full-time role in January 2023.

Learn more about Holt’s work and history!

At Holt International, we help children thrive in the love and stability of a family. But our services extend far beyond the adoption work we are known for.

learn about holt

The post Notes From the Field: January-February 2023 appeared first on Holt International.

Nancy Kim embarked on her first orphan escort trip while on her honeymoon with husband David Kim (1932-2018), caring for 100 children traveling to the United States to meet their adoptive families. Although this was not the honeymoon Nancy envisioned, she embraced the challenge of caring for the children with compassion and grace.  After their move to the United States in 1965, Nancy continued their work with orphaned and vulnerable children through Holt. Nancy has served as an unofficial goodwill ambassador for Holt International throughout, building relationships with Korean officials and partners around the world. She and David hosted numerous Korean partners, adoptees and adoptive families during their 50+ years living and raising their own family in Eugene, Ore., and further supported the development of Holt International partnerships globally.

In addition, Nancy led motherland tours, providing adoptees with the chance to learn their cultural heritage and share a special time of discovery with their adoptive families. Through her dedication and devotion to orphaned and vulnerable children, she has built lasting relationships with adoptees and is highly respected in the adoption community. Nancy worked closely with the late Molly Holt (1935-2019), daughter of Harry and Bertha Holt, who also devoted her life to caring and advocating for children in Korea. Molly is also a 2020 recipient of the Harry Holt Award.

“At Holt International, we work diligently to improve the lives of children across the globe. Thankfully, this legacy continues to grow and thrive with each generation because of people like Nancy Kim. We are pleased to have the opportunity to know her and to see the positive impact of her work over the years,” said Phil Littleton, president and CEO of Holt International. “Holt is honored to present the Harry Holt Award to Nancy Kim for her devotion to the mission of providing a loving and secure home for every child, and for her long-lasting influence in the lives of so many.”

The post Holt Honors Nancy Kim With Harry Holt Award appeared first on Holt International.

“The Murdock Trust is helping to cover the cost of the new Child Management System (CMS), which is the system we use to capture important programmatic data, child information and progress about sponsored children in Holt programs around the world,” said Holt Vice President of Marketing and Development Rick Ericson, who has led the organization’s internal data conversion effort. “In addition to greater efficiencies for social workers and our staff overseas, the new CMS provides robust reporting capabilities for child sponsors here in the United States — a key to the financial health and growth of these programs overseas.”

Providing care, comfort, love, and support to vulnerable children is one of the most important responsibilities a community must shoulder. We are fortunate that organizations like Holt International work tirelessly to help connect loving families in the Pacific Northwest with children in need throughout the world.

Pauline Fong, program director, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust

Once operational, the new database will not only improve the quality of information that sponsors receive about the children they support — it will also provide a more efficient and effective system for Holt staff to gather information in the field, safeguard sensitive information about orphaned and vulnerable children, and strengthen Holt’s ability to report on the global impact of their programs. Ultimately, the new CMS will help protect the wellbeing of the thousands of children already in Holt programs and help grow Holt’s reach to thousands more children in need around the world.

“Providing care, comfort, love, and support to vulnerable children is one of the most important responsibilities a community must shoulder,” said Pauline Fong, program director, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. “We are fortunate that organizations like Holt International work tirelessly to help connect loving families in the Pacific Northwest with children in need throughout the world. We are grateful for the opportunity to help Holt International build stronger connections between their Pacific Northwest supporters and their team doing this critical work around the globe.”

The Murdock Trust’s grant for the new Child Management System was supported by 100% dedicated giving from Holt’s Board of Directors and generous matching multi-year pledged gifts provided by individual donors.

Previously, the Murdock Trust funded efforts to strengthen PCI compliance and data security at Holt, which is a critical aspect of the organization’s legacy of service to children, adoptive families, and adult adoptees. “Holt International has always upheld the highest standards when it comes to protecting and preserving information about children and maintaining strong data management systems is a key part of our commitment to the people we serve,” said Holt President & CEO Phil Littleton.

Holt’s new child management software is currently in later stages of development and testing, with an anticipated launch date of July 2022.

For press and all other inquiries, please contact media@holtinternational.org.

The post Holt International Receives $445,000 Murdock Trust Grant to Modernize Child Information Systems appeared first on Holt International.

You smell, says the teacher. You can’t wear dirty clothes to school. You can’t learn anything. You don’t belong here.

You belong to the garbage.

On the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, high above the city at the crest of a hill, a land of discarded waste sprawls over miles and miles, shrouded by a heavy cloud of toxic dust. This wasteland, this dumping ground for a million people’s garbage, is a living place, teeming with animals and people who pick through the refuse to gather whatever they can find to survive. A rotten loaf of bread. A bone with some meat on it. Plastic or glass or metal that can be recycled for money.

To get first pick at the discarded food in the trucks that arrive at dawn, some people sleep here, using cardboard and old tires to block the icy night wind. To stay warm, they burn tires and trash, breathing noxious smoke into their lungs. In winter, when they climb up on the trucks, some of them slip and fall to their deaths. In summer, when it is hot and damp, some of them get life-threatening infections.

Some of them — a lot of them — have known no other life, no other place. They are just children, growing up in garbage.

To Grow Up in Garbage

“Most of the people who live in the garbage dump come from the countryside,” explains Baasandorj Alagaa, who two years ago founded a school — the Red Stone School — for the children growing up in the Ulaanchuluut, or “Red Stone,” landfill. “Either they have lost their livestock or simply they have no work. They come to the city with nothing. They can’t find a job. And their education is zero. They eat from the garbage because that is the only place they can go. And the children are eating from the garbage, too.”

Baasandorj — “Baaska” — is a man in his early 40s, youthful looking in a leather bomber jacket and sunglasses beneath the brim of a New York Yankees cap. At first glance, he seems an unlikely person to have founded a nonprofit organization and an alternative school for children living in some of the worst poverty anyone can imagine. But Baaska’s story is their story. He, too, grew up in garbage.

“I know their life,” he says. “I am one of these children because I was orphaned and I grew up digging in the dump.”

But then one day, after 10 years living in the dump, Baaska decided “that’s enough for me.” He started attending church, and with the help of missionaries, Baaska finished school and then college and ultimately, he earned a master’s degree in social work — hoping to help others who have lived the same hard life that he has.

“I know their life. I am one of these children because I was orphaned and I grew up digging in the dump.”

Baaska, founder of the Red Stone School

“I started going to church in 1998, and my life started changing,” he says. “By going to church, I was able to believe in life, become confident, and that there are still people in this world who love me, who will protect me. While I was going to church, I studied at Ulaanbaatar University, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences, and became a social worker. Since then, I established the Red Stone NGO.”

Baaska is humble, and the way he quickly glosses over his educational achievements makes them sound like no big deal — like the only thing holding him back for so long was sheer lack of will. But for children who live and work in the dump, attending school is no easy feat.

There are no yellow buses to come pick them up from the dump and drive them the three miles to the nearest school. Because many of their families migrated from the countryside, they can’t register to attend one of Ulaanbaatar’s public schools — schools that are already overcrowded, with kids attending in 4-hour shifts of 50 or 60 students to a class.

“They get teased at school by the other kids. They get teased because they smell, they do not wear nice clothes, their hair looks dirty or because of the supplies they use… And not only students, but the teachers sometimes say to the kids that they should not be going to school with dirty clothes. They can’t learn. They belong to the garbage.”

Baaska

Even if they could register their children, expenses like books, uniforms and supplies are well beyond the means of families who dig through trash for a living. Reliable shoes are another expense that parents can hardly afford, and in winter, when temperatures dip to 40 degrees below zero, they worry about their children getting frostbite on the long walk to school.

Some children overcome these obstacles, trudging through ice and snow in flimsy, filthy clothes just to get an education. But what they face inside the classroom is in some ways far worse than any of the other roadblocks that stood in their way.

“They get teased at school by the other kids,” explains Baaska. “They get teased because they smell, they do not wear nice clothes, their hair looks dirty or because of the supplies they use… And not only students, but the teachers sometimes say to the kids that they should not be going to school with dirty clothes. They can’t learn. They belong to the garbage.”

A New Way of Life

Munkhbold was nervous for his first day of school. He was 9 years old, but had never attended school before. Most days, he tagged along with his mom to the garbage dump and helped her dig through the trash — hoping to find food or recyclables, which would typically net them between 1200-1500 tugriks, or 60 to 75 cents, per day. For Munkhbold, his parents, his three siblings and his grandma, home was a cramped summer shed, converted from an old wooden caravan, with uneven slats that let in daylight and dust and, in winter, frigid cold air.

A woman in her 30s, Munkhbold’s mom grew up in the countryside before moving to Ulaanbaatar in search of work. “I wanted to get a job,” she says, “but I couldn’t because I wasn’t qualified for anything.” Like many people coming of age in Mongolia after the fall of the Soviet Union, Munkhbold’s parents found themselves ill prepared to find work in the new market economy.

“When I first heard about the school, I didn’t want to go. It was scary. I’d never been to school before. But my mom said, ‘You’re going to school.’”

Munkhbold

They grew up expecting an altogether different way of life — a life in the country, herding livestock or working on collective farms subsidized by the Soviet Union. But after the Soviet collapse, subsidies ceased and communal structures broke down. When Munkhbold’s mom moved to Ulaanbaatar, the only place she could earn a daily wage was in the informal economy of the Red Stone landfill.

“I was 17 at the time, which was about 13 years ago,” she says of the day she moved to the dump.

The next year, she had a daughter. And then a son. And then two more children. But only her eldest daughter attended school for a time, dropping out before the second grade. She’s 12 now, and last year, she started the first grade over at the Red Stone School.

“I went many places to find jobs and because of that, I moved my kids outside of regular school districts for some period of time,” says Munkhbold’s mom, a warm and earnest woman who closely resembles her 12-year-old daughter.

Munkhbold’s mom tells us that she has an eighth-grade education, while her husband, who occasionally works as a builder, finished seventh. Now that her kids have an opportunity to go to school, she is determined to give them an education beyond what she and her husband received. So on a day last September, instead of joining their mom at the dump — a place no child should ever be — Munkhbold and his sister nervously walked down the hill from their home to a place called the Red Stone School.

Generations of Change

The Red Stone School sits inside an iron fence on a patch of land a half a mile from the dump. It looks out over low, rolling brown hills sliced by riverbeds that freeze over in winter, and build up trash in summer. Deforestation during the Soviet era stripped the hills of trees and plants, and in their place are thousands of plastic trash bags that floated down from the dump after being picked clean of their contents. When the winds kick up in late spring, the bags whip and spin through the air in colorful storms of smoke and dust. But on a still sunny day, through the barred windows of the Red Stone School, they glisten like diamonds on the hillsides.

On his first day of school, as Munkhbold walked along the edge of the trash-strewn ravines, he dreaded what it would be like. Would the other kids be nice to him? What would he have to do? Would it be warm? But as he stepped inside the classroom, he began to feel differently about this place so different from anyplace he had ever been.

“That was a great day. I made some new friends,” says Munkhbold, a stout guy with a charming smile and a birthmark on his chin that earned him the nickname “beard” among his new friends.

At school, he ate lunch every day — a lunch he didn’t have to scavenge from the garbage dump, a lunch that just appeared before him, steaming hot and delicious. He learned about “recess” — a time designated just for play, with a basketball court and lots of games waiting for that very purpose. Munkhbold already knew how to read, but for the first time, at school, he would learn how to write. He received a navy blue uniform, neat and pressed with a blazer and button-down shirt. He discovered that he really likes math, he says. And what he most looks forward to — his favorite day at school — is when they serve dumplings. “When we were at the dump, we ate what we found,” he says. “Some days we ate a lot. Some days, we didn’t eat at all.”

“When we were at the dump, we ate what we found. Some days we ate a lot. Some days, we didn’t eat at all.”

Munkhbold

The promise of daily hot lunch is one of the biggest draws to the Red Stone School, and when we visit on an afternoon in early May, the children line up to fill their bowls full of chicken, rice and shredded carrots. It’s a dry, 30-degree day outside, and the chill wafts in the hallway. But once inside, the heat from the furnace keeps the classroom toasty warm. The walls are lined with educational posters and artwork created by the children, and textbooks sit open on their desks.

When Baaska first opened the Red Stone School two years ago, only seven kids showed up for class. The school at the time consisted of two industrial shipping containers welded together, and his nonprofit couldn’t afford heat, regular meals or textbooks for the kids. When winter came, attendance quickly dropped off. But when the staff of Holt Mongolia learned about the Red Stone School, and what Baaska was trying to do for the children in this community, they immediately reached out to Paul Kim, Holt’s U.S. director of Korea and Mongolia programs.

“This is why I love working in this country,” Paul says, as he surveys the grounds of the school. “There are so many individuals like [Baaska] who have the heart and drive, but don’t have the funding because Mongolia is a poor country. There is an amazing opportunity to create a huge impact here.”

For years, Holt Mongolia has worked to empower families living in Ulaanbaatar’s most impoverished district — a district home to around 65,000 people, including those who live in and around the Red Stone dump. In these communities, monthly donations from Holt sponsors have helped struggling parents, often single mothers, meet the most critical needs of their children. For these most vulnerable families — families who have in many cases migrated to the city after losing their livelihood in the country — Holt sponsors now provide the safety net that disappeared along with their traditional way of life.

“Mongolia is traditionally a communal culture,” explains Paul, who has worked with Holt’s Mongolia program since it formally began in 2000. “Extended families and nomadic groups would support members of their communities, and provide care for any person or family in need. However, with urbanization, those traditional safety nets are gone, and the government does not have the funding or the systems in place to provide care to these children and families in need.”

This year, with the support of Holt sponsors and donors, over 1,000 children in nearly 400 families in Mongolia will receive food, shelter and warmth — basic support that helps keep families together, and provides a stable foundation to rebuild their lives. 

But in every country where Holt works, we never work alone. Always, we seek opportunities to partner with local leaders who know their communities best.

“Throughout the history of our organization, our most successful programs have been built upon collaboration with local partners and governments,” says Paul. “They are the most aware of the places with the greatest need, which are frequently hidden from the eyes of outsiders, and just as importantly, they know of what is in the hearts of those we would serve.”

By partnering with a local leader like Baaska, we not only meet immediate needs, but empower children in this community to lift themselves and their families out of poverty — and out of the dump.

As Paul says, “Our partnership with the Red Stone School will impact children and families in this community not only today, but will continue to ripple out through each successive generation that follows.”

The Impact of Sponsors

In October 2016, Holt sponsors began supporting Red Stone students through monthly donations that would cover the cost of books, school supplies, salaries for teachers, daily hot meals and, most critically, heat. With support from sponsors and donors in the U.S., Baaska and his team built a two-room schoolhouse, combined the shipping containers into a large room, installed a furnace and will soon build an enclosed shower and toilet so that the children can take hot showers — a luxury that many of them have never before experienced.

In this, the poorest district in Ulaanbaatar, families will often go months at a time without bathing. Public baths often deny service to families from the dump, and many of the children suffered from chronic lice, ticks or skin issues when they first came to the Red Stone School. But on the cold day in May when we visit, they look like the healthiest, most beautiful children in the world — a change that is in no small part due to the compassion and generosity of their sponsors.

“With the help of sponsors, we can see with our eyes the progress we are making in providing education to these children, which encourages us all. Such generous help and support gives us a belief that anything is possible for these children.”

Baaska

“With the help of sponsors, we can see with our eyes the progress we are making in providing education to these children, which encourages us all,” says Baaska. “Such generous help and support gives us a belief that anything is possible for these children.”

Much like the public schools in Ulaanbaatar, Red Stone can only accommodate a limited number of children at a time. At present, 40 children attend the Red Stone School in two shifts of a little longer than four hours each day. But the school is open every day of the week, with special weekend activities for the kids held inside their converted shipping containers. Baaska hopes to convert this structure into a library and another classroom, and wooden shelves now line the insides, waiting to be filled with books.

“They haven’t been standing still,” Paul says. “They have kept working.”

Donors continue to raise funds to provide more for the kids, and during our trip, we deliver a washing machine, dish cabinet and lockers for the kids to store their belongings.

“I am very, very happy and so thankful to Holt sponsors and the organization for helping all our kids,” Baaska says when we visit, alongside a team of Holt donors who traveled with us to build new homes for some of the most vulnerable children and families in the Red Stone community — including Munkhbold and his family, who now no longer live in a wooden shed.

With this group of donors, Baaska shares that he feels like he can finally relax now that he has so many “brothers and sisters” to help care for these children — children who he and all the teachers and staff at Red Stone love like their own family. When Baaska came down with a life-threatening illness a few years ago and could not afford the expensive treatment, he tells us that the children came together to collect recyclables so they could save his life.

“When they gave me the money, it amounted to about $3.70,” he says. “My eyes were filled with tears. That they love me as much as their parents was beautiful.”

Inspired by the children, Baaska eventually raised the funds to cover his medical costs and today, he is more motivated than ever to continue growing the school. He is not content to stand still.

“Next to the dump there is a large graveyard and children live there, too,” he says. “My dream is someday we have a school big enough for all the children from both the garbage dump and the graveyard. Why can’t we build a school for over 1,000 children or more? That’s the size of my dream. We don’t have the funds for that. Not yet. But I can dream.”

What the Future Holds

During our visit, we ask Baaska what sort of future the children who graduate from the Red Stone School will have to look forward to. They will have an education, but will they have opportunities? Before responding, he looks down and thinks for a moment, holding his Yankees cap in his hands.

“I have a chat with the kids a lot, tell them my life story,” he says. “They all ask me, ‘How can I become like you?’ But I tell them that they can be better than me.”

Although Red Stone is not a certified school, the children can graduate with a GED. And once they do, they are eligible to enroll in college. The cost is high, but Baaska has already connected with local universities and several have expressed interest in providing scholarships for Red Stone graduates.

“I have lived this hard life, and I had this opportunity to provide these kids with education,” he says.

Seeing how his life changed, Baaska has faith that here now, in this sanctuary of hope and peace amid a land of wasted dreams, are future scientists, presidents and scholars. For these children — children who Baaska once feared would not live to see their 20s, children who are now so loved and protected by all of their brothers and sisters in Mongolia and in the U.S. — anything is achievable.

“The children who grow up in the garbage don’t have any dreams,” he says. “But if we can educate them, they can dream big.”

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The post A School for Kids in the Garbage Dump appeared first on Holt International.

Congratulations to Jim De, director of Holt’s partner in Delhi, India, for receiving the Mahatma Ghandi award honoring 21 years of service to vulnerable children and families in India!

Throughout his life, Jim has held a wide range of positions and responsibilities — all impacting the lives of children and families. He has worked with Indian birth families through their decision to relinquish their child for adoption, managed a boarding house for at-risk girls, set up a school for children living in the forests of Mayurbhanj and organized a task force to care for children in India’s coastal villages who were orphaned by the 2004 tsunami.  Jim also worked with the Delhi government to develop a program for foster care in 2006, a process fashioned after Holt’s model of foster care.

Today, he serves as executive director of Shishu Sangopan Griha (SSG), Holt’s partner organization in Delhi.

Read more about Jim De and his accomplishments in this story from 2016, when Jim served as country director for Holt in India. 

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Honey Clothing Company is a fashion brand started by new mom Elizabeth McGlathery. The brand currently specializes in women’s tees and accessories. While Honey Clothing’s products are certainly sweet and cute, there’s more to the company than simply selling pretty things. Honey Clothing Company also helps children around the world through Holt. 

“I launched Honey Clothing Company ultimately to stay at home with our son,” Elizabeth says. “My husband and I felt like we had missed out on so much of his little life already. So we decided to take a leap of faith.”

As sweet as this sounds, Elizabeth has even sweeter intentions behind her business. One is an exercise of conscience. All of Honey Clothing Company’s tees are sourced from socially responsible manufacturers that take good care of their employees and create their items through eco-friendly practices.

Her other intention is to help support single mothers in South Korea through Holt International. With every order, Honey Clothing Company donates $2 to Holt.

Elizabeth’s connection to Holt is deeply personal. She and her husband adopted their 2-year-old son Wilson through Holt from South Korea. In fact, it was Wilson who gave the company its name, as one of the first English words he said was “honey.”

“Through the adoption process, we learned more about the cause of the orphan crisis in South Korea,” Elizabeth shares. “A lot of unwed mothers are not supported. We just wanted to help and we wanted our money to be able to go towards something that’s helping with the root of the problem. So, when we brought our son home, we reached out to Holt to ask how we could continue supporting Korea. That’s what we were directed to do,
and we love it.”

The stigma of single motherhood is indeed a great concern in South Korea. Holt traces its beginnings to mid-1950s Korea when its founders, Harry and Bertha Holt, adopted eight children left orphaned or abandoned in the wake of the Korean War. Today, war and poverty are no longer the main reasons that children come into orphanage care in Korea, but rather, the discrimination that single mothers often face if they choose to parent. These women need help to overcome stigma, and independently parent their children. But with the help of generous donors and companies like Honey Clothing Company, Holt supports many single mothers and their children — helping them get the housing and care they need, and even empowering these women to complete their education so they can build better lives for themselves and their kids. While Holt continues to help find families for children through adoption, they primarily help children remain in the loving care of their birth families — in South Korea and countries around the world.

Elizabeth is eager to get the message of her sweet intentions across to Honey Clothing Company’s customers and followers. Aside from donating part of her sales, she has linked her business website to Holt so people can learn more about Holt’s work. As a nice touch, her products are delivered to clients in a flower envelope with a postcard of her family that shares her story and heart.

“The postcard is basically a thank you letter from me and my family, just telling the story of how we brought our son home,” Elizabeth shares. “It also says why I launched Honey Clothing and how they’re not only supporting my dream of starting a business, but also how they’re supporting single mothers in Korea.”

“I want people to know that they’re not just buying a shirt or an earring,” she says, “they’re supporting a family and a greater mission.”

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In October 2018, Holt’s nutrition team launched a partnership with Vitamin Angels, a nonprofit organization that provides vitamins and deworming medication to mothers and children under age 5 who are at risk of malnutrition.

When vulnerable families and children receive these essential vitamins, they experience a reduction in preventable illness, blindness, poor birth outcomes and even death. When children are healthier, they experience better growth and development, perform better in school and their families have better economic outcomes. Vitamin Angels also provides prenatal vitamins to pregnant women, which helps prevent birth defects and creates a healthier pregnancy for both mom and baby.

This partnership is a wonderful match for both of our organizations as we work together toward a common goal of creating healthier futures for children and families.

We began our work with Vitamin Angels in Uganda. Alongside local partners, we developed a strategy to reach pregnant women and children in hard-to-reach rural areas who were at risk of malnutrition and began holding quarterly “child health days” where we not only provided essential vitamins, but also medication, education, support and health services.

Before the program began, the Vitamin Angel team in Uganda trained Holt staff on how to teach others to provide vitamin A supplements, deworming medication and prenatal vitamins. Our team in Uganda then worked with their government partners to train 32 healthcare workers from four government health centers. Together with this trained team of healthcare workers, our Holt team in Uganda hosted their first four health days in December 2018 and March 2019.

They saw an amazing response from the community — providing vitamins and medication for 2,340 infants and children and 100 pregnant women!

This community turnout really highlighted the need that exists in these areas and the commitment families have to their babies and children, traveling from remote areas to ensure their children received these vital supplements.

This success also helped to build the community’s awareness of available resources and support. It also further strengthened our relationships with local government health centers, which provide many services to families and children but sometimes need help reaching families living in remote areas. During the child health days, the government centers committed their staff time and additional medication to reach even more children.

With additional support from Vitamin Angels, we hosted four more health days in June and October 2019 — reaching another 5,504 children and 200 pregnant women!

As a next step, we hope to work with local schools in Uganda to provide these essential vitamins to even more women and children living in impoverished areas. Through continued partnership with the government and Vitamin Angels, we are working to reach thousands of families and strengthen communities throughout Uganda!

Everywhere Holt works, we ally with strong partners to better serve vulnerable families — and this program really highlights the benefit of that approach. This year, we expect to double the number of people we reach through our nutrition program, and our wonderful partners will be there right by our side — ensuring all families and children have the opportunity to be well-nourished and live healthy lives.

Emily DeLacey | Nutrition and Health Programs Director

Support Holt’s Child Nutrition Program

Your gift to Holt’s child nutrition program will provide life-changing nutrition and feeding support to children living in poverty and in orphanages around the world.

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The post Holt Partners with Vitamin Angels in Uganda appeared first on Holt International.

Myung Hoon plays the viola beautifully.

Beautifully enough to win second place in a solo competition with musicians who learned to play the instrument years before he did. Beautifully enough to earn a scholarship to New York’s prestigious Manhattan School of Music. But no matter how beautifully he played, for a long time, Myung Hoon never felt like he was enough. Like he deserved what he achieved.

“I did not have a dream when I was young because I did not grow up in a family. I thought orphans do not deserve to have a dream.”

Myung Hung wrote these words in a letter to Love Beyond the Orphanage (LBTO), a U.S.-based organization that provides scholarships and support for young adults who grew up in orphanages in Korea. Young adults who once they turn 18, find themselves unceremoniously released into society with nothing but a $3,000-$5,000 stipend, and absolutely no survival skills.

According to Julie Duvall, who co-founded LBTO with fellow adoptee Kim Hanson, this is the time in their lives when they are most vulnerable.

“They have no skills. No one to trust. And it is scary,” she says. “A lot of them struggle. It’s a scary world for them.”

“They have no skills. No one to trust. And it is scary. A lot of them struggle. It’s a scary world for them.”

Julie Duvall, co-founder of Love Beyond the Orphanage

Julie especially worries about the girls, who are vulnerable to predators and sex traffickers who prey on young women without any family ties. Some aged-out orphans end up turning to crime as a means of survival. But in most cases, they simply struggle to get by in a society that shames them at every turn for something they have absolutely no control over.

They are orphans. And in Korea, orphans do not deserve to dream.

“It’s just very unfair for them – for orphans,” says Julie. “In Korea, bloodline is very significant. If you don’t have the bloodline, they don’t look at you the same.”

Although Julie uses the term “orphan,” the irony is that most children growing up in — and aging out of — orphanages in Korea are not actually orphans. They have a family. They have parents. The reason most children end up in orphanages in Korea also has nothing to do with poverty, as in many countries. Rather, it has everything to do with the overarching cultural value placed on a “pure bloodline.” These “orphans” are the children of single mothers — women who, had they chosen to parent, would face the same stigma, discrimination and shame that their children now face as they age out of orphanages and enter Korean society. Having a child out of wedlock breaks a family’s bloodline. But being an orphan means you have no bloodline. You don’t belong.

Over the past 70 years, an estimated two million children have grown up in orphanages in Korea, with over 1,000 young adults aging out every year. And since August 2012, when the government passed a law that makes it harder for children to be adopted, Korea’s population of orphans has only continued to grow.

“Now that adoption is declining, that means more babies are sent to orphanages. That means more babies are going to grow up and age out,” Julie says.

“The public has no idea that orphanages even exist in Korea. Some people may know, but [they don’t know that] several thousand orphans are aging out,” she says. “One orphanage we visited has 600 orphans. It’s unthinkable! And no one knows.”

Through Love Beyond the Orphanage, Julie Duvall and Kim Hanson are determined to make people know about the crisis of aged-out orphans in Korea. Both Korean adoptees, Julie and Kim have a unique heart and passion for the children left behind — the ones who weren’t adopted. But Julie in particular shares a special bond with aged-out orphans in Korea. Adopted as a young adult, Julie’s story is unusual. She lived in an orphanage until she turned 16, and never expected to join an adoptive family.

Like the kids she now advocates for, Julie was also an aged-out orphan. She was one of them.

Julie wears glasses, a little silver cross around her neck and a brace on her wrist from a tennis injury. After 30 years in the U.S., she still speaks with a bit of an accent, which she’s self-conscious about, and she insists she’s actually very shy. But when she talks about her life in Korea and the life of aged-out orphans who still live there, her voice is forceful and clear. She does not wait for questions. She does not break for air.

“I grew up in an orphanage in Korea and aged out at age 16 only because back then – in the 1970s and 80s – Korea in general was very poor. Everyone was struggling, and orphanages were struggling even more to support those orphans,” she says. “I remember growing up in the orphanage where food was not there much. It was not a pleasant experience.”

Julie lived in a small orphanage with just 25 other girls. They became her sisters, her family, and together they survived. But she says the 16 years she spent in an orphanage was the darkest period of her life.

“Our orphanage was a private orphanage so we went through so much abuse physically, mentally and sexually,” she says. “I escaped the sexual part, but I have come very close to being one of the victims.”

Today, she says, the Korean government provides more oversight and protection for children living in the country’s social welfare system.

“But when I was growing up, none of that existed … A lot of girls went through the trauma of abuse and still to this day, some of them are suffering,” Julie says of the girls she grew up with — of her “sisters.”

At 16, Julie left her orphanage to serve as a live-in housemaid for a family in her community, which 30 years ago was a common way for aged-out orphans to pay for their high school education. But from day one, they made it clear to Julie that she was not a part of the family. She was there to work, and that’s it.

“In Korea, when you are working for somebody and the owners know that you’re an orphan, how they treat you is a lot different,” she says. “You are their employee, but they really don’t care about you.”

Bloodline and family name are so valued in Korean culture that many aged-out orphans struggle to find jobs in the first place. Even if they overcome the odds and earn a college degree, they will still face discrimination in the hiring process. In Korea, all job applications require a birth certificate or family name.

“They will see that you are an orphan,” Julie says. “That causes them to reject you.”

“They will see that you are an orphan. That causes them to reject you.”

Determined to earn her high school diploma, Julie continued working as a housemaid until she graduated. After that, she found a low-paid job delivering supplies to office buildings. She endured sexual harassment by her supervisor, but never spoke up. She was an orphan, after all. Who would take her seriously?

After six months, she injured her back and quit.

“I had no money, no place to go, no friends. I didn’t have anybody,” she says. “So I ended up visiting Molly Holt at Ilsan.”

The second eldest daughter of Holt founders Harry and Bertha Holt, Molly Holt devoted her entire life to advocating for orphaned and vulnerable children in Korea. From her early 20s until she passed away in her 80s, Molly lived at Ilsan, the long-term care center for children with special needs that her parents founded in the early 1960s. In Molly, Julie found a friend and advocate.

“Molly accepted me. She allowed me to stay with her at her house. She knew my situation,” Julie says.

For a time, Julie lived and worked at Ilsan. But it soon became clear to her that she had no future in Korea. She had no desire to work as a housemother, the only job available to her at Ilsan. Then, one day, she met the Mayberrys, an adoptive family from Eugene, Oregon. They had traveled to Korea with their three adopted daughters, and stopped at Ilsan for a visit. Molly told the Mayberrys about Julie’s background and the difficulties that aged-out orphans face in Korea, and they felt compassion for Julie — and started looking into how they could help her. They reached out to the leadership of Holt International in Eugene, who brainstormed a way for Julie to come to the U.S. on a work visa. They even offered for Julie to live with them while she worked at Holt.

That year, the Mayberrys asked Julie if she would like to legally become a part of their family. She said yes.

“Just an amazing family, wonderful people,” Julie says of her adoptive family. “I felt very blessed to have gotten this opportunity … I didn’t expect any of this to happen, but I had faith that deep in my heart, I wanted to come to the U.S. The number one reason, I knew I could work hard — and no one cared whether I was an orphan or not.”

Julie went on to attend college in the U.S., get married and raise two lovely daughters.

“I’ve been blessed,” she says. “I could just enjoy my comfortable life. But I feel that’s not why God brought me here.”

Although Julie had no desire to return to her birth country, she could not stop thinking about her sisters back in Korea.

“It was always in the back of my mind how my sisters are continually suffering,” she says.

Most of Julie’s sisters found work in factories or in other low-paid jobs — often the only jobs that aged-out orphans can find in Korea. Some of them married, some of them are divorced. Some of them stayed in abusive relationships because they had nowhere else to go.

“But they’re survivors,” Julie says. “They have to work every day, sometimes seven days a week, to provide for their family. But when we’re together, they’re just happy to see each other.”

To advocate for her sisters, Julie became a board member of Korea Gospel Mission, an organization that supports orphans and aged-out orphans in Korea. When her sisters struggle financially, the mission can allocate funds to help them. Every so often, Julie travels to Seoul to visit her sisters as well.

“I could easily say, ‘I am done with my life in Korea,’” she says. “I don’t want to go back and think about it and relive this horrible life in Korea. But there’s something in me that says, ‘These are your sisters.’ So I will go back and be there for them …I want to let them know they’re not forgotten.”

Julie couldn’t forget her sisters in Korea, but she also could not stop thinking about the thousands of other orphans aging out every year into a society that shuns and discriminates against them.

“The reason no one is coming to defend vulnerable orphans is because no one understands their outcome,” she says. “But I went through all that and completely understand what they’re facing. I always felt in my heart that someone has to be their voice. But no one is doing that in Korea … And nothing has changed. Nothing has changed in their attitudes toward orphans.”

Every so often, Julie and Kim would get together with other adoptees, and talk about their lives in Korea, or talk about what they saw in the media. They felt especially emboldened to speak out against the anti-adoption movement in Korea — a movement led primarily by Korean adoptees who grew up in the U.S. and other countries.

“[Adoptees] go to Korea and they advocate against adoption,” Julie says. “Whenever I hear that, it really upsets me because there are so many orphans who did not get chosen to be adopted into a family. And they age out, and they will remain as an orphan for the rest of their lives, live in silence. Those adoptees have no idea … If they were not chosen to be adopted by families, they would not say what they say in Korea. NO way.”

“With my story, with my experience, and with Kim Hanson and her adoption experience, we said we need to do something … And so we formed the organization Love Beyond the Orphanage,” Julie says.

Through LBTO, they hoped to bring awareness to the struggles that aged-out orphans face in Korea. They wanted to be their voice, and their advocate. But they also wanted to give them the opportunities and support that they miss out on simply because they don’t have families.

Growing up in an orphanage is, itself, a huge disadvantage for any kid trying to succeed in Korea’s competitive educational system. “They have to work twice as hard to maintain the same grades as non-orphans,” Julie says. “Because they didn’t get to have private lessons. And when you’re living an institutional life, mentally, you’re several years behind the kids who have families.”

To help close the gap, Julie and Kim began raising funds to provide scholarships for a handful of young adults pursuing higher education or vocational training. Although the government will cover the cost of tuition for aged-out orphans to attend college in Korea, the students often struggle to afford the cost of books, transportation and basic living expenses. And as many of them have to work twice as hard to maintain their grades and keep their scholarships, they struggle to hold down jobs that will cover their expenses.

“What we’re doing is helping them stay in school by offering an extra $500 a month for food, transportation, books, have a meeting with their friends, have coffee or go out to dinner,” Julie says. “Other kids have those privileges, but these kids don’t. We want to provide that for college kids so they graduate from college and they’re not struggling to figure out how they’re going to get food the next day.”

But it’s not just material support these kids need. Through LBTO, Julie and Kim want to give aged-out orphans something more than they experienced in the orphanage. They want them to experience what it’s like to be part of a family.

Every year for the past two years, LBTO has hosted two holiday events for aged-out orphans — Lunar New Year and Chuseok. During these two biggest holidays in Korea, families will often have a week of festivities during which no one works or goes to school.

“But these kids have no place to go,” Julie says. Often, they will just stay in their dorms.

During the holiday celebrations, Julie and Kim don’t do any lectures or seminars or counseling sessions like they normally would when the students gather. The students stay together in a nice hotel. They cook traditional foods and exchange gifts. They joke around and socialize and relax.

“I want them to feel like they are just as important,” Julie says. “They are cared for, and loved, and I want them to understand they are very special and they have a right to celebrate, just like anyone else.”

To the more than 25 aged-out orphans who attend these events, Julie and Kim have become both family and mentors. Often, Julie says, orphans in Korea hold tight to their feelings, and give answers that people want to hear when asked about their lives. But they trust Julie because she understands what it’s like growing up in an orphanage, and aging out into Korean society.

“The kids, the orphans, they’re more willing to open their hearts because they understand I understand what they are going through,” Julie says. “They do not open their hearts to most other people. But see, there is a connection because they understand that I went through the same thing they did.”

Currently, LBTO is providing monthly stipends for 11 aged-out orphans to cover needed expenses while they work to graduate college. In the two years since LBTO was founded, they have provided scholarships for a total of 14 students, two of whom have already graduated — one as recently as February 2019. One is still working to find a job, and the other one already has a job lined up. Although Julie says the government of Korea is working to reduce discrimination in hiring practices, orphans still struggle to find employment after graduation. For that reason, LBTO continues to support the program participants until they find a job.

Myung Hoon is one of the 11 students in the program who is still working toward his degree. “After I met Love Beyond the Orphanage, I allowed myself a dream and my dream was not just ‘a dream,’” he wrote in his letter. “It helped me to break my thought that orphans can’t have dreams. There are no words to express my gratitude to LBTO … you have given me not only scholarship money, a great opportunity but also confidence, motivation and a vision.”

Once he graduates from Manhattan School of Music, Myung Hoon hopes to secure a position playing viola in an orchestra in the U.S. He also hopes, he says, “to be a role model for the 1,000,000 orphans, to help show them to dream and to let them know that they deserve to dream.”

Myung Hoon does not want to return to Korea after he graduates, and Julie understands his decision.

“Here, there is no discrimination,” Julie says. “You work hard and you get treated according to how hard you work and your skills. I see why he doesn’t want to go back to Korea.”

But Julie is hopeful that in the coming years, as LBTO and other organizations raise awareness about the challenges that aged-out orphans face in Korea, life will gradually become easier for kids who have no family name.

“My greatest hope is that the whole of Korea’s perception would change so [orphans] don’t fear anyone knowing who they are,” she says. “So it’s okay for them to freely say, ‘I grew up in an orphanage and that’s totally fine.’ You know, acceptance. I want them to be accepted into society and feel free to be who they are.”

Together with Love Beyond the Orphanage, Holt International is now working to identify ways we can help prepare institutionalized children in Korea to lead successful lives once they leave their orphanage. 

Learn more about Holt’s work in Korea!

See how sponsors and donors create a brighter, more hopeful future for children and families in Korea!

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