- Headline: Interview: Ms. Spoelstra of the Christian Adoption Program of Korea Prepares for Departure
- Subheading: Helped facilitate 1,200 adoptions, urges for “immediate integration of adopted children beyond bloodlines”
- Source: Dong-A Ilbo
- Date of Publication: November 22, 1971
- Summary:
American social worker Ms. Elvinah Spoelstra led the Christian Adoption Program of Korea (CAPK) from August 1966 through December 1971. Sponsored by the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee in Michigan, Spoelstra dedicated her efforts to advancing social work in Korea and bringing a coordinated structure to Korea’s adoption efforts, which had previously been sporadic. CAPK, a division of the Korea Christian Missionary Society (Taehan Kidokkyo Sŏn'gyohoe), was registered with the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs in 1962, officially incorporated in April 1969, and has since become Korea’s sole domestic adoption agency. Recently, CAPK has expanded its mission to include counseling services for “unwed mothers” and “unwed fathers,” securing parental rights relinquishments and providing temporary foster care before finalizing adoptions. Last May, the organization celebrated placing its 1,000th child. “I still remember my first visit to the Ministry, where officials remarked that it was a nice idea, but likely ineffective here in Korea,” she recalls. “Back then, we aspired to place just ten children a month domestically; now we’ve placed as many as 32 in one month.” Under Spoelstra’s leadership, the program has arranged adoptions for over 200 children annually and has provided care for more than 300 infants each year through counseling services for unwed mothers. The Relationship between Christianity and Adoption of Children Born to Unwed Mothers
The efforts of Spoelstra, affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church, and the Christian Adoption Program of Korea (CAPK) to establish counseling services and a temporary foster care system for unwed mothers led to a sharp rise in the domestic adoption of children born to unwed mothers in the 1970s. Compared to 1,163 such adoptions in the 1960s, the 1970s saw a near tenfold increase, reaching 9,075 adoptions. Meanwhile, in 1972, the four government-designated international adoption agencies in Korea initiated counseling services for unwed mothers, leading to a significant rise in international adoptions as well, with 17,627 children adopted abroad, a fourteenfold increase from the 1,304 international adoptions recorded in the 1960s (Kwon, 2019, p. 29).
The unwed mother counseling centers, the foster care system, and the facilities for unwed mothers built in the 1970s functioned collectively as an infrastructure to secure and place the children of unwed mothers for adoption.
Reference: Kwon, Hee Jung. The Birth of Unwed Mothers: The History of Exiled Mothers (unofficial translation). Antonia’s Books, 2019.
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Ms. Spoelstra, who has advanced Korean adoption efforts, prepares for her departure.
The English summary and translation of this article is provided by UMI4AA. |
