Family Preservation: Single Mom Support in Korea

The Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network was established by an American doctor, Richard Boas, MD.

After adopting a child from Korea in the late 1980’s and visiting Korea in 2006 after retirement, he had an idea. “What I realized at the time was these children’s mothers were in the country and down the block, but their home was the social service agency.

The thing that floored me was going to facility in Daegu and meeting a dozen women in the facility. They were all about 20. They were all unmarried. They were all very pregnant and had all signed away their child. I realized that nobody else in the room, Korean or American, was thinking similarly. They were continuing to think what a wonderful thing they were doing.

I had an answer to the unsettled feeling. I hadn’t validated my daughter’s natural mother. I felt awful. I didn’t understand how I missed this.”

He “had a ton of questions on my mind, such as why are so many kids leaving Korea, a wealthy democracy, when other countries take care of their own?”

He also realized that the myth of unwed mothers in their 20s was a lie. “There seems to be common belief that unwed moms are typically in their teens or early 20s. Recent research shows that over half of the moms are 25 and over. They’re not receiving a significant amount of support at all.”

His organization site can be found here:  KUMSN. The character at the top says “All Mothers Have the Right to Raise Their Own Children!” The organization provides grants to locally run groups that assist unwed mothers. For the list of organizations, click here .

Organization Helps Korea’s Single Moms
[The Wall Street Journal Korea Real Time Blog 2/11/11 by Evan Ramstad]

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