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me b zola

(19,053 posts) Thu Mar 20, 2014, 06:23 PM Mar 2014

In South Korea, quest to recast views of single motherhood

In South Korea, quest to recast views of single motherhood

A group of adoptees, who say they were given up because their mothers couldn't raise them, are spearheading efforts to make single motherhood less of a social taboo and financial constraint.

By Steven Borowiec, Correspondent / March 20, 2014

~snip~

Rather than being abandoned by her mother as the adoption agency told her, she and her sister were given up by their grandmother when their mother was working away from home.

Heit is part of a vocal group of Korean adoptees arguing that the primary reason Korean children are given up for adoption is a society that stigmatizes unmarried mothers. They are working to shift that cultural outlook, and are also speaking out against Korean adoption agencies, which they say are focused on growing profits to the detriment of child protection. The recent death of a Korean adoptee in the United States has added zeal to their cause.

~snip~

Advocates for unwed mothers have pointed to a lack of government support as a problem. Unwed mothers are eligible for a small government stipend of 70,000 South Korean won (about $65) per month, while families with adopted children receive more than twice that amount (150,000 won).

Heit is now married and settled in the country of her birth, where she works as an editor and translator. She maintains contact with her adoptive parents in the US but says, “my case shows how traumatic adoption can be, even when the adoptive parents are loving and have the best intentions.

“I still always wonder, if only someone had helped my mother, would things have been different? Could she have raised me on her own?”

*emphasis mine

~more @ link~
http://m.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2014/0320/In-South-Korea-quest-to-recast-views-of-single-motherhood