My Name is Life
Many call me “Orphan,”
but my name is “Life”…
Many call me “Fatherless,”
but my name is “Hope”…
Many call me “the Dust of Life,”
but my name is “Love”…
finding families
for children
finding families
for children
finding families
for children
Post Office Box 2880 • Eugene OR 97402
50th Anniversary 2006 Vol. 48 No. 2
Some only see me
the “orphan” child
looking up from the ground,
sad imploring eyes,
and tattered clothes,
the child standing beside the door.
But my spirit is steel…
My will, a searing flame.
Music resounds in my soul.
Laughter waits inside me.
Generations of children
dwell within me.
My own children
Will be your grandchildren.
Though I always have been,
always will be,
my own person,
dreaming my own dreams.
My life reflects the touch of all
who have touched my life
by John Aeby, 1996
excerpted from a video narration
Nonprofit Org
US Postage
Paid
Eugene OR
Permit No. 291
finding families
for childrenRequested
Change Service
finding families
for children
Pursuing the dream...
a home for every child
Dear Readers
From Your
Heart...
to Your
Home
Fulfilling the dream
of a family
for over 50 years.
When we set out to produce this special 50th anniversary edition of Holt International magazine,
we knew we could include only some of the highlights of Holt’s history. The more we worked on
this project, the more wonderful stories and photos we had to leave out. Still, we hope we’ve
captured some of the sweep and breadth of this wonderful story.
Holt’s rich history is populated with the lives of children, with workers and leaders who dedicated
themselves to the principle that children need families, and with contributors whose sacrificial
giving exemplifies a belief in the value of every child. Devoted people have brought their hard
work, skills and resources to place children into the loving arms of permanent parents, and we are
grateful for everyone.
We thank God for the incredible privilege of helping children. God’s hand has guided Holt International through many difficult circumstances. And we praise Him for so many glorious moments
when we’ve seen His hand touching the life of a child and allowing us to be a part of His work.
Holt’s history is a valuable reminder of the Source of Holt’s success, but this history only introduces
us to the challenges ahead.
Those of you who read this publication now are a part of the continuing Holt story. So much
remains to be done. There are yet children around the world who need the love and belonging of
a family. You have a vital role in the lives of those children… and in the next chapters of Holt’s
history.
—John Aeby, Editor
50th Anniversary Edition 2006
our mission
Holt International is dedicated to carrying out God’s plan for
every child to have a permanent, loving family.
In 1955 Harry and Bertha Holt responded to the conviction
that God had called them to help children left homeless by the
Korean War. Though it took an act of the U.S. Congress, the
Holts adopted eight of those children. But they were moved by
the desperate plight of other orphaned children in Korea and other
countries as well, so they founded Holt International Children’s
Services in order to unite homeless children with families who
would love them as their own. Today Holt International serves
children and families in Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Ecuador,
Guatemala, Haiti, India, Korea, Mongolia, the Philippines,
Romania, Thailand, the United States, Uganda, Ukraine and
Vietnam.
president
& ceo Gary N. Gamer
vice-president of programs
& services Carole Stiles
vice-president of marketing
& development Phillip A. Littleton
vice-president of finance
& advocacy Susan Soon-keum Cox
& administration Kevin Sweeney
board of directors
chair James D. Barfoot vice-chair Julia K. Banta president emeritus
Dr. David H. Kim secretary Claire A. Noland members Andrew R.
Bailey, Rebecca C. Brandt, Kim S. Brown, Wilma R. Cheney,
Clinton C. Cottrell, Will C. Dantzler, Cynthia G. Davis, A.
Paul Disdier, Rosser B. Edwards, David L. Hafner, Jeffrey B.
Saddington, Shirley M. Stewart, Steven Stirling
A Legacy of Love
magazine is published bimonthly by Holt
International Children’s Services, Inc., a nonprofit Christian child
welfare organization. While Holt International is responsible for the
content of Holt International magazine, the viewpoints expressed in
this publication are not necessarily those of the organization.
holt international
The Holt Story
4
A couple from rural Oregon changed
the world of adoption
editor
John Aeby
managing editor
Harry and Bertha Holt
8
Adopting—the early years
assistant
Brian Campbell
Sara Moss
subscription orders/inquiries and address changes
12
The firsthand account of an adoptive mother
who witnessed one of the greatest crises Holt
International ever faced
Molly Holt
Alice Evans
graphic design & LAYOUT
Profiles of faith, love and determination
13
In 1955 she committed her life to serving
the children of Korea
Adoption from China
and other countries
48 no. 2
P.O. Box 2880 (1195 City View) Eugene, OR 97402
Ph: 541/687.2202 Fax: 541/683.6175
vice-president of public policy
contents
vol.
holt international children’s services
Cover: For 50 years Holt has
sought to elevate the status of
homeless children around the
world. While Holt develops
innovative programs every year,
simple human caring remains
Holt’s greatest tool for helping
children thrive until they can be
placed with a permanent family.
Two girls in China, 2005.
Send all editorial correspondence and changes of address to Holt
International magazine, Holt International, P.O. Box 2880, Eugene,
OR 97402. We ask for an annual donation of $20 to cover the
cost of publication and mailing inside the United States and $40
outside the United States. Holt welcomes the contribution of
letters and articles for publication, but assumes no responsibility
for return of letters, manuscripts, or photos.
reprint information
Permission from Holt International is required prior to reprinting any
portion of Holt International magazine. Please direct reprint requests
to editor John Aeby at 541/687.2202 or johna@holtinternational.org.
arkansas office
5016 Western Hills Ave., Little Rock, AR 72204
Ph/Fax: 501/568.2827
california office
A Legacy of Caring
3807 Pasadena Ave., Suite 115, Sacramento, CA 95821
Ph: 916/487.4658 Fax: 916/487.7068
midwest office serving iowa, nebraska and south dakota
Holt’s 50-year legacy
14
of serving children around the world
President’s Message
www.holtinternational.org
1-888-355-HOLT
10685 Bedford Ave., Suite 300, Omaha, NE 68134
Ph: 402/934.5031 Fax: 402/934.5034
missouri office/kansas office
31
The Power of One… and Many
Gary Gamer highlights people who helped
children to have families.
203 Huntington Rd., Kansas City, MO 64113
Ph: 816/822.2169 Fax: 816/523.8379
122 W. 5th St., Garnett, KS 66032
Missouri@holtinternational.org
oregon office
Capitol Plaza 9320 SW Barbur Blvd., Suite 220, Portland, OR 97219
Ph: 503/244.2440 Fax: 503/245.2498
new jersey office
340 Scotch Rd. (2nd Floor), Trenton, NJ 08628
Ph: 609/882.4972 Fax: 609/883.2398
Copyright ©2006 by Holt International Children’s Services, Inc.
ISSN 1047-7640
finding families
for children
A conference for international leaders working on behalf
of orphaned, abandoned and vulnerable children around
the world. Go to the website for more information:
www.holtinternational.org/conference
An International Conference Hosted by Holt International
www.
The Holt Story
Harry and Bertha Holt would insist that they were ordinary. And in their simplicity abides
much of the beauty of what they accomplished. The work was never about them… it was
always about the children and following God.
Left: Harry walks with his adoptive children—Seoul,
Korea, 1955. Above: Bertha feeds adopted daughter Betty. Below: An older girl protectively hugs a
younger girl on the play yard by the mission school
and orphanage at Hyo Chang Park, Korea, 1956.
Harry Holt negotiated to build a school on land
owned by the Church of Christ, which allowed him
to use the building for the year as an orphanage.
C
Consider the tens of thousands of children from Korea
whose lives were forever changed by the notion that “Every
child deserves a home.”
Consider the hundreds of thousands of children in India, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Romania,
Guatemala and more than a dozen other countries around
the world who came to be loved in a secure family environment because of the work begun by Harry and Bertha Holt.
And yet, the Holts with their six children from 22 to 9
years old, were a regular sort of family—hardworking,
practical, living a simple, quiet life in a rural Oregon community. One day as he climbed a hill to size up timber,
Harry suffered a near fatal heart attack. He was only 45
years old. A self-made, self-reliant and stubborn man,
Harry was suddenly vulnerable. Both Harry and Bertha
reached out to God and were comforted. As an expression
of their thanks, they offered themselves for the Lord to use
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50th Anniversary 2006
in some small way.
Harry and Bertha were already practicing Christians, but
their faith and practice deepened at this time. In a fundamentally different way, they began to prepare the soil
of their spirits for God’s planting. Five years later Harry
and Bertha’s 11-year-old daughter, Suzanne, came home
from school with a request: Could the family attend a film
presentation in Eugene about the plight of Korean War
orphans?
Harry had already made other plans. But after he prayed
about his daughter’s request, and because her friend
needed a ride, Harry decided they would go.
Someone to Care
“I looked at Harry. He was motionless and tense,” Bertha
wrote in Seed from the East, describing their reactions to
the documentary entitled “Other Sheep.” “I knew every
scene had cut him like a knife. I was hurt, too…. We had
never seen such emaciated arms and legs, such bloated
starvation-stomachs and such wistful little faces searching
for someone to care.”
Among them, the Holt family agreed to sponsor 13
children. When photographs of their sponsored children
arrived a month later, a profound realization was already
developing in their hearts. Those children needed food
and shelter and clothing, but they needed love, too. They
needed a family where they could belong.
Harry had a waking dream. He saw a girl with almond
eyes and blondish hair. Privately, he asked the Lord what
he should do for that little girl.
Simultaneously, Bertha began to have her own vision.
She imagined children coming into their home where she
could love and care for them.
“I would walk from room to room thinking of how we
could put a cot here…and another bed there. It even occurred to me that some of the rooms could be partitioned
and made into two rooms without depriving anyone.”
Just before going to bed one night, Harry cautiously
revealed that he’d been thinking about adopting orphaned
children from Korea. “I’m glad,” Bertha responded, holding back most of her joy. Astoundingly, they discovered
that each of them had independently arrived at the same
number—eight. They could make room in their home and
in their hearts for eight more children.
Harry Holt was not the kind of man to second-guess
himself. Once he and Bertha agreed to adopt eight Amerasian children, Harry made plans to leave for Korea. Bertha
began investigating the procedures.
When a friend of the family told them it couldn’t be done,
he added as an afterthought, “But if you could get Congress
to agree and pass a law…”
www.holtinternational.org
5
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” said Bertha matter-of-factly.
She recruited neighbors and friends to join in her letter-writing campaign. Less than two
months later, on the last night of the session, Congress passed a brief bill specifically allowing Harry and Bertha to adopt eight children from Korea.
When Harry returned with their eight children in October 1955, the press was there.
The Holt story quickly spread around the country. Harry and Bertha planned to settle in
quietly with their newly arrived children, but almost immediately other families started
calling and writing, asking how they, too, could adopt a child from Korea.
Harry could not forget the “tiny outstretched arms” of children who remained behind. Less than a year after they first learned about orphans in Korea, Harry made plans
to return to Korea. With Harry in Korea and Bertha in the United States, they launched a
program to care for children until they could be placed with adoptive families.
In the 1950s adoption was usually a secretive process. Children were matched to families according to physical characteristics in an effort to conceal the fact they were adopted.
The Holts’ example reversed this thinking. Though the Holts weren’t the first to adopt
from overseas, the publicity around their adoption opened the eyes of the world to a
reality that resonated with thousands of families. This ordinary couple from Oregon
showed the world that a family is not limited by race and nationality, and that love
and commitment are the true bonds of a family.
Caring for Orphaned, Abandoned and Vulnerable Children
Officially incorporated in 1956 and initially financed almost entirely by Harry
and Bertha’s personal holdings, the Holt program drew international attention,
honor and criticism right from the beginning. The Holts kept their focus on
the children, on literally saving their lives through medical care, nutrition
and finding homes and loving hands to care for them.
Harry and Bertha Holt followed their instincts regarding the care of
children, and they were innovators too. They developed attentive styles and
methods of child caring that continue to be the hallmark of Holt’s work and
advocacy today:
• Caring touch—childcare workers touch and hold children affectionately. Infants are held when fed.
• Verbal stimulation—childcare workers speak often to the children, encouraging
the development of language and a connection with others.
• Freedom to explore and develop—children are taken out of cribs as often as
possible so they can develop their motor and sensory skills.
• Comprehensive Intake Procedures—whenever a child comes
into care of a Holt partner agency, the child’s birth family
receives counseling to determine if that family can be
kept together. If a child is abandoned, Holt partners
try to locate the birth family to assess their capabilities and gather background information. If a child is
adopted, the background information becomes even
more valuable to the child in the future.
This page: Harry Holt comforts a tiny girl in Korea, 1955. • Opposite, top:
Food donations are delivered to Ilsan in the early 1960s. Images of starvation
and malnutrition among the children of Korea catalyzed a huge response. In
addition to personal donations made by the Holt family, many individuals, organizations, church communities and even the food industry itself sent food to help
feed Korean children. • Center left: Dr. Cho, Byung Kuk, a pediatrician, began working
for Harry Holt in 1959. “He never minded any inconvenience if it was for children,” she
said after his death. • Right: As a young nurse in Korea, Molly Holt assists Dr. Ralph Ten Have in
caring for a malnourished infant. Harry Holt hired Dr. Ten Have as his medical assistant in 1958.
• Below: Children play on a swing at one of the early Holt childcare centers in Korea.
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50th Anniversary 2006
www.holtinternational.org 7
Harry Holt: The Heart of a Humble Servant
His wife said he never changed a diaper… until he followed God’s
leading to Korea.
Harry worked on the land, moving earth, running a combine,
growing wheat, raising cattle, milling flour, mining coal or cutting
and milling timber. Though he attended school only through
the third grade, he had a genius for building nearly anything he
needed.
Following a heart attack at age 45, Harry dedicated his life to God.
“Many people say that they received the Lord Jesus and they do it
with their head and their mouth,” Harry said in a message he recorded for Martha Sue Surdam, a girl whose life he saved in Korea.
“Many are willing to receive Him as their Savior, but many don’t
go all the way and receive Him as their Lord, and that’s the most
important thing.”
Young Soo
Kwak Young Soo would have died if no one had found her. She
was an orphan, scrubbing floors for people who beat her. They
sent her up the mountain to collect wood, and when she returned
they had moved away, leaving her alone in the cold. When
brought to our orphanage her right foot was badly frozen and her
left foot and hands were slightly frostbitten. She was in great
pain but was still able to smile, which was a miracle. Now, in her
American home, she is a ray of sunshine and a joy and blessing to
her family and teachers.
—Harry Holt
Holt Adoption Program newsletter, April/May 1961
Harry spent the final eight years of his life changing diapers,
rocking babies and singing songs to them, providing medical
assistance, rescuing children from imminent death, and burying
hundreds of babies that he wasn’t able to rescue.
He continued to farm, fell trees and move earth, bringing equipment to Korea to build an entire village for the care of children
with disabilities.
Some might say he not only moved earth, he moved heaven and
earth. But this simple man—who once lived in a sod house in
South Dakota—would most likely say it was heaven that moved
him.
Harry Spencer Holt
B. 1905—Neligh, Nebraska
D. 1964—Ilsan, South Korea
Right: Martha Sue Surdam, one of the earliest children placed by the Holt program, thanks Harry Holt with a kiss—late 1950s. Later Harry recorded a letter to
Martha Sue describing how he brought her into care. That recording is available
through Holt’s website.
Far left: Harry gazes out over the landscape near his home in South Dakota—
1930s. Harry’s background instilled hard work and self-reliance, but he also took
time to dream. The combination of faith, vision and initiative prepared Harry to
launch the Holt program at a time international adoption was mostly unheard of
by the public and largely opposed by authorities.
Left: Harry and Bertha Holt wear traditional Korean hanboks—early 1960s. When
the Holts adopted eight children from Korea, they devoted their lives to that
country in many ways. Today, both Harry and Bertha are buried on the hillside
overlooking the Ilsan Center.
Below left: Harry cares for his adoptive children—Korea, 1955. Nurturing care
became a hallmark of the program Harry built in the following years.
Above and below: Accustomed to working with heavy machinery, Harry built
three successively larger childcare centers in Korea trying to keep up with the
need after the war caused thousands of children to become orphaned or abandoned. Eventually he built the Ilsan Center on nearly 60 acres of hillside property
near the Demilitarized Zone. Children and babies from two of these early facilities used beds for playing as well as sleeping. The babies were brought outside
for the sunlight.
Background: Harry’s handwritten letter home describes how on his way to Korea
to adopt their children, he was nearly overcome with doubt. When he opened his
Bible, his finger landed on Isaiah 43:5-6—“Fear not for I am with thee...bring my
sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth.”
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50th Anniversary 2006
www.holtinternational.org 9
Halmoni: Beloved Grandma
She was simply “Grandma” to thousands of children who were
adopted through Holt International, to all of the adoptive families
including birth children, and especially to thousands of children
who waited and hoped to be adopted.
Bertha studied to be a nurse, but she put that aside to raise her
six children and blaze a trail to Oregon, where she helped farm,
raise cattle, and do the multitude of tasks required of a farmer’s
wife.
Left: Wearing a traditional Korean hanbok, Bertha Holt posed for this portrait
taken for her 80th birthday in 1984.
Top: Bertha was named the American Mother of the Year in 1966. At the official
presentation in Washington, DC, she sat at the head table with then U.S. Vice
President Hubert Humphrey.
Center: Bertha set a world record for her age group in the 400 meter run in
1996 when she competed in the Masters Track and Field Championships held in
Eugene, Oregon. Sometimes known as “the running grandma,” Bertha ran and
later walked to stay in condition. She was walking a mile when she had a stroke
that led to her death. Her children later completed that mile for her.
Bottom, from right: Bertha greets husband Harry when he returned from Korea
with their eight new adoptive children, October 1955.
She made each child feel special. Arriving at the Ilsan Center in Korea
in 1968, Bertha greets every child in care.
Bertha enjoyed traveling to see the children, and she kept meticulous records of every flight in logs signed by the pilots.
At age 90 Bertha traveled to India, where a recently
built childcare center had been named “Bertha Verada”
(Bertha’s Blessing) in her honor. In this photo, taken
on that same trip, she holds a child in care at Holt’s
partner agency in Bangalore.
Bertha, with hair in her signature French braids,
poses with some of the early Holt-Korea staff
including David Kim at the far left, circa 1959.
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50th Anniversary 2006
When Harry was struck down by a heart attack, Bertha joined
him in praying for his recovery with a promise to serve God in
whatever way He showed them. She and Harry were keepers of
promises.
When the time came to mobilize efforts to adopt children on
a large scale, she rose to the occasion, proving that beneath the
simple farmer’s wife appearance, she was every bit as capable and
committed as her husband.
When Harry died in 1964, Bertha had the grace and courage to
continue the work. Over the next 36 years Bertha’s faith inspired
the growth and development of Holt International. She never
took a back seat. By the time she, too, passed away, Bertha had
been named “Mother of the Year,” logged more than a million
flight miles traveling for Holt International and advocating for
homeless and disabled children, and set a world record for her age
group in the 400 meter run.
But the title she held dearest to her heart was Halmoni, grandmother in Korean. She should also be remembered as Bunica in
Romania, Lola in the Philippines, Bà Ngoai in Vietnam, and Khun
Yai in Thailand, and other designations of grandma.
Bertha Marian Holt
B. 1904—Des Moines, Iowa
D. 2000—Creswell, Oregon
Excerpt of a July 1999 letter from Bertha Holt to Holt families:
The highlight of the trip to Korea was my visit to the Blue House
to see Korea’s first lady, the wife of President Kim, Dae-jung. Her
name is Lee, He-ho. Molly and David Kim accompanied me. She
was most gracious. She sorrowed that so many babies were leaving
the country and felt strongly that Koreans should adopt Korean
children. I agreed, but I pointed out that Korea’s culture does not
yet favor adoption except of a relative. It is a predicament which
hurts innocent children. I pleaded that the babies not be raised in
orphanages because every child needs a father and a mother.
I am happy God allowed me to make this trip to Korea. I so enjoyed seeing Molly, the workers, Pastor Lee, the residents, HoltKorea’s staff and Korea’s first lady. I pray that God uses this to His
glory.
Lovingly,
Grandma
www.holtinternational.org 11
Adopting from Korea in the Early Years
Olivia Wassmann and her husband were in Korea to adopt two little girls
on the day Harry Holt died.
Fred and I had already adopted four children, three from
Korea, when the foreign adoption law was renewed. This
allowed us to adopt two more Korean orphans if we traveled
to Korea. We applied for two girls and flew to Korea on a
chartered Flying Tigers airplane with a planeload of expectant parents in April 1964.
When we arrived, we and the other parents were shown to
a large room where we placed our sleeping bags on the hard
floor. The parents who were adopting older children were
allowed to bring in their children to sleep with them.
The next morning we were taken up the hill to see our
10-month-old baby, Debbie, a tiny infant who looked about 2
months old. The other baby assigned to us was in the hospital with a spot on her lungs, unable to pass through Immigra-
tion, so we were told to select another child. This was one of
the hardest things I’ve ever done. A 3-year-old came running
up and threw her arms around my legs, so I said to Mr. Holt,
“Should we take this little girl?” He said, “That’s up to you,
but it’s the infants that we lose. Our hillsides are dotted with
baby graves.”
My husband and I started down the long aisle of cribs
where the infants were propped up in little seats. Down the
aisle we went, looking into each little face, in total confusion. Then, one 6-month-old baby smiled a crooked smile at
us, and I said, “We’ll take this one!” So that’s how our Donna
entered our family. What a way to make such a life-changing
decision, but it was a good choice.
The Death of Harry Holt
On our second day at the orphanage, we were told that
Mr. Holt would be driving a van into Seoul and we parents
could ride with him to the Holt office there, from which we
could take sightseeing tours. Parents piled into the van, and
off we went. About halfway to Seoul a tire blew on the van,
and with substantial effort Mr. Holt (and probably a helper)
changed the tire. We later wondered if this contributed to
his heart attack. We made it to the Seoul office and waited
for a tour bus, meanwhile watching as tiny abandoned infants
were carried in.
After a full day of sightseeing we and other parents
returned to the Seoul office and waited for the orphanage
van to pick us up again. After a long wait we heard a loud
commotion from the office staff, who told us, “We have just
been notified that Mr. Holt is dead!” What an unbelievable
shock! Later we were picked up and returned to the orphanage. We were told that after dropping us at the Holt office,
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50th Anniversary 2006
Mr. Holt had taken children back to the orphanage, run up
the hill with an emaciated baby and put her into someone’s
hands, and then staggered to his room. He didn’t quite make
it to his bed.
An enormous mourning arose among the staff, the
children, and the parents. Quite some time went by before
phone communication could be made with Mrs. Holt in the
United States. One of the Korean craftsmen immediately
began work on a coffin. Mr. Holt previously had said, “If
anything happens to me, bury me on the hillside with my
babies.”
Mrs. Holt arrived as soon as she could. After a funeral service in the chapel, we all followed in line to the burial site.
Our Children
Donna was 6 months old and Debbie 10 months, but they
each weighed exactly 10 pounds. Debbie was so emaciated
that when we got off the plane in Detroit we
immediately went to our family doctor’s
office. We knew any little germ could end
her life.
Our doctor looked at her and said,
“Only a miracle will save this baby.” He
turned her over to give her a shot in her
little butt, and there was only a bone
with loose skin hanging onto it.
In the ensuing days, I laughed and
talked with Debbie as I held her and
fed her. She tried to reach for my
face, but her little hands dropped
weakly back when halfway up. She
kept trying to turn her head backwards to see to whom I was talking. On
the third day the reality hit her that I was
talking to her, and she immediately began
to eat like a little piggy—life was suddenly
worth living. Both babies picked up rapidly and became a tremendous joy to us.
All our children are well and successful.
I am grateful—so very, very grateful.
—Olivia Wassmann,
Clinton Township, Michigan
January 2005
Molly: “Unee”
Before Harry and Bertha Holt decided to adopt, Bertha phoned
her 19-year-old daughter Molly at nursing school to tell her about
the orphaned children in Korea.
Today, she serves as chair of the Holt-Korea Board of Directors. But she continues to be most passionate about the disabled
residents of Holt’s Ilsan Center.
“I can’t do anything to help now; but when I finish training in
two years... if it’s the Lord’s will... I’ll go over to Korea and help
take care of those babies,” Molly responded.
At age 70, Molly is “unee” (elder sister) to the 300 residents at
Ilsan Center where she lives and serves. The residents have lost
their families and have varying degrees of disability. Since her
mother’s passing, Ilsan residents treat her more like their parent,
their family.
“As I placed the phone back on the hook, I felt wonderfully
blessed,” Bertha wrote a year later. “I knew Molly would be unable to send money. She... was living on her savings. But somehow, I felt that Molly was making the biggest contribution of all.”
Prophetic words: Over nearly all of the past 50 years Molly has
fulfilled her promise. She has served in many capacities from
community health nurse, to internationally known advocate of
disabled children and
adoptees.
Molly champions opportunities for the Ilsan residents, and HoltKorea’s commitment to them is evidenced by a world-class facility
that offers education, vocational training and skill building toward
independent living. Molly even helps arrange weddings for them
when they come of age.
Many days, you’ll find Molly, tool kit in hand, making rounds of
the children’s apartments. Through her efforts, many residents
have wheelchairs that correct their posture and hold them in
positions that allow them to develop more control over their bodies. Because residents change and grow, the chairs need constant
readjustment to fit properly, but the readjustments also serve as a
way for Molly to monitor residents’ development.
Left: Molly Holt at Ilsan, 1973. Harry Holt built the
Ilsan Center in the early 1960s as a temporary home for
orphaned and abandoned children soon to be placed
with adoptive parents. But within a few years the facility
had evolved into a home for disabled children, most of
whom could not be adopted. In the 1980s Ilsan was
completely remodeled to accommodate and serve
those in wheelchairs and on crutches. Today,
Molly Holt and a dedicated Holt-Korea staff,
­­­care for and train 300 disabled residents at
Ilsan. Facing page: This sequence of images
comes from the documentary Korean Legacy,
a film which followed a group of adoptive
parents including Olivia and Fred Wassmann who traveled to Korea in April
1964. The filmmakers had planned
to document the work of Harry Holt
and international adoption. The
crew filmed the initial interactions
of the parents with their adoptive
children, their trip into Seoul in
the back of a truck driven by
Harry Holt, and their arrival at the
Holt Office in Seoul. In the final
frame shown here, Harry Holt can
be seen rounding the front of the
truck. Later that day, the filmmakers captured the shock and
grief of staff and the adoptive
parents in the Seoul office when
they learned that after transporting
a sick child back to Ilsan, Harry Holt
had died from a massive heart attack.
Korean Legacy became a tribute not
only to the spirit of adoption, but also
a memorial to the man who dedicated
the final years of his life to saving
abandoned and vulnerable children.
www.holtinternational.org 13
Russia, 91–94, 98–02
Ukraine, 2004–
Mongolia, 2000–
Romania, 1989–
U.S.A., 1956–
N. Korea, 1998–
S. Korea, 1956–
Bulgaria, 2002–
China, 1993–
Hong Kong, 1980–
India, 1979–
Taiwan, 1979–82
Philippines, 1975–
Uganda, 2002–
Bangladesh, 1972–73
Thailand, 1976–
Vietnam, 73–75, 89–
Cambodia, 91–93, 05–
Family Preservation
Desperation sometimes drives
parents to relinquish or abandon
their children in the hope that
someone will care for them.
Mexico, 2001–02
Most parents intend to reclaim
these children someday, but
reality is harsh and reestablishing their livelihood can
Guatemala, 1986–
be nearly impossible. Holt prevents abandonment and
helps separated families get back together. Counseling El Salvador, 1984–86
and other assistance help make it possible for parents
Costa Rica, 1986–94
to support themselves and rebuild their lives as families.
Holt has helped hundreds of thousands of children through
these various services.
Domestic Adoption
Finding Families For Children
The Holt International
movement began in Korea, but
the command to “Bring thy seed from the
East, and gather thee from the West” quickly moved members of
the Holt family to work in other countries. Harry visited Paraguay
and Mexico looking for ways to serve the children there.
Hong Kong (when it was
a British colony), Mexico,
Nicaragua, Peru, Russia
and Taiwan.
But there was so much work to do in Korea that while Harry
was still alive, the work maintained its Korean focus. As the
effects of the war subsided and the Republic of South Korea developed a thriving post-war economy, Bertha Holt and staff at Holt
International were able to lead the agency in new directions.
The Wide Ranging Services of Holt International
The brutal last years of another war took Holt International to
another part of Asia—Vietnam. In 1972, Holt sent a survey team
to assess the needs of children. They discovered that tens of thousands of children had been orphaned by nearly a quarter-century
of war.
And so it was that country by country, in response to the needs
of orphaned, abandoned and vulnerable children, Holt International followed in the footsteps of the Holts, and found ways to
help the suffering children.
Holt now has programs in Korea, China, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Mongolia, the Philippines, Romania, Thailand, Uganda, the United States and Ukraine.
Over the past 50 years, Holt has also served children in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras,
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50th Anniversary 2006
Haiti, 2003–
Colombia, 1985–86
Honduras, 1983–86
Nicaragua, 1976–82
Ecuador, 1987–
Brazil, 1984–95
Circumstances sometimes make it impossible to reunite a child with his birth family.
However, every country where Holt works
Peru, 1984–85
has families capable of loving and nurturing
adopted children as their own. Because some
Bolivia, 1985–88
cultures resist adoption of children outside of
the extended family, domestic or in-country
adoption is sometimes a developing institution.
Still, Holt’s efforts are bringing about changes that encourage adoption
and protect the rights of adoptive parents and adoptive children. Holt has
placed over 21,000 children with adoptive families in their birth country.
International Adoption
Today Holt is known around the world for its comprehensive
programs and services designed to:
• Meet children’s immediate needs for health and survival.
• Protect children’s rights and interests with a view to their
needs in the future.
• Follow the highest ethical practices in serving children,
birth families and adoptive families.
• Respect and honor cultures while striving to identify
what’s best for each individual child.
The following is a brief description of Holt’s major services.
Children cannot wait for cultures to change.
They need loving, secure families while they are
young and developing. Because some children
cannot be returned to birth families or be adopted
domestically within a reasonable length of time,
Holt International unites children with families
through international adoption. In 50 years Holt
has placed over 40,000 children with U.S. adoptive
families. Because of its experience and integrity, Holt’s policies and practices are
emulated around the world.
Single Parent Programs
Holt’s care of children may begin even before
they are born. Reaching out to expectant parents—often unmarried young women who have
been rejected by their family and abandoned by
the birth father—Holt offers shelter, medical care,
counseling and other assistance. Holt enables
birth parents to make informed and unpressured
decisions regarding the best course for themselves
and their children. These services help safeguard the health and futures of both
the mother and the child.
Foster Care
Between the time a child comes into care and
the moment the child is placed in the arms of his
permanent parents, Holt helps provide for that
child. Food, shelter, clothing and caring attention
are all essential for development, even for survival. In many countries Holt has pioneered foster
care as an alternative to institutional care. Holt
has placed thousands of bright, healthy children,
thanks largely to the selfless foster families who love these children as their own,
and then let them go to their permanent parents.
www.holtinternational.org 15
Medical Treatment
Every homeless child in Holt’s programs receives
medical care. This essential service saves lives and
often makes adoption possible for children. Vaccinations, regular exams, surgery, medical equipment and medical supplies are only a few of the
vital elements of medical care that Holt provides
for children. Children who have experienced
developmental delays because of a medical condition can often make dramatic improvement as their health improves. As a result,
their chances for adoption also improve.
Nutrition
Simple food is sometimes all it takes to keep a
child with his birth family. Imagine how discouraging it is to see your child become malnourished.
Several of Holt’s partner programs offer nutrition
and nutrition training to prevent child abandonment. Parents bring their children in for a healthy
meal every day while they are in the program.
Parents also attend classes that teach economic
ways to provide nutritious meals for their children. Almost no families in these
programs relinquish their children.
Programs for HIV/AIDS Affected
Children
Innocent children have become the most recent
population to suffer terrible consequences
because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, creating two
primary kinds of “AIDS orphans.” HIV-positive
parents and inappropriate medical practices have
infected some children with this deadly disease.
For many others HIV/AIDS has left them without
parents and sometimes without even extended family members. Holt and
its partners have developed a range of services that enable these children
to have safe, nurturing homes with loving caregivers. Sometimes the child’s
family and school simply need education so that the children receive the support and encouragement they need. The solutions often must take place at
several levels—including the family and the community.
Childcare Centers
Legal requirements, medical needs and other
conditions sometimes require Holt to care for
children at childcare centers. Though institutions
cannot provide the level of attention that a foster
family can, Holt makes the best of this situation
by providing high staff-to-child ratios, training
child workers and scheduling for consistency in
children’s care. Holt’s dedicated, knowledgeable
and loving childcare workers provide attentive care to children awaiting permanent families.
Programs for Children
with Special Needs
Children who are older, have disabilities or are part
of sibling groups often wait to be adopted, sometimes for years. These “waiting” children need and
deserve families as much as other children. But the
likelihood of locating adoptive families for them in
their birth countries is often very low. Holt offers
programs that provide medical treatments and various therapies to help children develop their “abilities.” And, fortunately, many
families in the United States find special joy in adopting these waiting children.
Holt encourages the adoption of waiting children through advocacy, fee reductions and other financial subsidies.
Post Adoption and Adoptee
Outreach
Holt is pioneering services to address the continuing needs of adoptees, adoptive parents and birth
parents. These services cover a wide range of
needs such as referral services for families who
need counseling, documentation for those who
need legal records, a search registry and assisted
search services for adoptees and birth parents
seeking to contact each other. Holt also offers Heritage Camps for international
adoptees 9–16 years old and Heritage Tours, which enable adoptees to experience
the land of their birth.
Left to right: Long-time Holt board member Dr. Rebecca
Brandt holds a child in care in Russia, 1994.
These two girls received care from Holt in 1994.
After he was abandoned at a local hospital in Russia, 8month-old Ervin lived in the infectious disease ward until
he was discovered by staff workers from one of Holt’s Assistance to Russian Orphans (ARO) agencies. They were able
to reunite Ervin with his birth father and new mother. In
2001, when this photo was taken, more than 650 children
were returned to their birth families through Holt and
Holt’s partner agencies.
Russia
Holt was able to place children, particularly those with special needs, from Russia in the early and mid 1990s. Holt’s work later reemerged at the end of that decade with U.S. government funding in helping to establish model child welfare services to stem the tide of
institutionalization. Holt does not currently have a program in Russia, but the results of our technical support and service development
lives on and continues to assist children through indigenous Russian agencies.
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50th Anniversary 2006
Dancing in the Hallways
There is a magical moment when
adoptive parents learn that they have a child
Twelve floors above the busy streets
of New York, the annoying honking of
horns faded into the pleasing rise and fall
of baritone saxophone scales. A yellow
legal pad sat on my desk, just a few lines
of copy—dark blue-inked words that now
marked a memorable and personally historic significance.
A few minutes earlier I had hung up the
phone with Mike from Holt International,
and I played the conversation over and
over again in my mind. “Great news” and
“Congratulations” were the words that
were delivered with emphasized and heartfelt enthusiasm.
I tore off the piece of paper along its
perforated edge, folded it, and tucked it in
my breast shirt pocket. Minutes later, sitting among colleagues at a large table at Asia de Cuba for an intense lunch
meeting, I discretely seized the note and unfolded it for
another peek. Co-workers continued to speak, but I heard
no words as I covertly glanced down at the written words
now unfolded on my lap:
Eun Sung, Born November 7, 2004—Girl
Later on my way home I stopped at a market across from
Grand Central Station to pick up a single red rose. The
day’s chill seemed to be gone, warmth filled my heart and
eagerness overtook my stride. Gia and Ethan arrived on
the 7:37 p.m. train from New Haven, after spending the day
Korea
D
Desperate conditions in Korea in the years following the war
caused the early Holt program to develop methods to help weak
and malnourished children survive and regain their heath. Harry
Holt along with first Korean assistant, David Kim, developed practices that laid the foundations for Holt’s work today: attentive, loving care along with basic good nutrition, shelter and medical treatment. Harry instinctively knew that all children, and especially
those who were dangerously ill, needed the warmth of a caring
touch and the encouragement of a loving voice. In response, Holt
pioneered foster care to provide family-like environments for
young children awaiting adoption.
As conditions improved in Korea, needs changed as well.
Fewer children were being abandoned due to poverty while the
number of children born to single mothers increased. Holt initiated counseling programs for single mothers as well as shelter
programs for unwed pregnant women.
with cousins. Back at the apartment all three of us danced
in the hallways. We ate pizza and cake. We couldn’t stop
smiling.
Tomorrow we will receive a much-anticipated FedEx
package. In it will be forms, paperwork, medical reports,
and other fodder. We will put all of it aside for a moment,
however, and go right to the photo of our Daughter. We will
put the photo in a frame, place it on the dining room table,
and begin to complete the forms. This is a ritual we began
with Ethan’s adoption.
—Scott Anderson; Orange County, California
Ethan Anderson pictured above.
Tim and Laura Sperry received their daughter Mee Ja from Korea in 1993.
ing domestic adoption in the 1960s, but some cultural traditions
change slowly. The number of children needing families continues to exceed the number of Korean families open to adoption.
While international adoption has been often a controversial
issue within Korea, the government advocated for children to
have the families they needed. Through the years the Korean
government has regulated a consistent and well-devised adoption
process that helped children to have secure, loving families.
North Korea
Holt International has been working through the North Korean
Asia & Pacific Peace Committee since 1998 providing support
to this area of the country. Holt provides nutritious biscuits for
orphans and children in at-risk families in orphanages and daycare
centers in Pyongan Buk/Nam-do and food support to children in
the Shinuiju area, because food remains scarce.
Holt International and the government of Korea began promot-
www.holtinternational.org 17
Only children who had been carefully screened and legally
relinquished for adoption were sent to the United States.
Holt’s bold decisions and steadfast commitment to ethical
practice protected the lives of children and saved families
from the anguish of correcting wrongs.
Vietnam
Early April 1975—At Holt International headquarters in Eugene, Oregon,
Holt Executive Director Jack Adams gathered staff to pray. For several days no
calls or communications could get through to Holt’s Vietnam office, and news
out of Vietnam was ominous. The last message said that Holt’s DaNang Center
had been abandoned and the children evacuated to Saigon.
As the staff prayed, the receptionist excitedly got Adam’s attention...
it was a call from the Holt office in Vietnam.
Over the following few days, Holt mobilized a massive effort to evacuate
children from Vietnam. Adams put all Holt staff on round-the-clock work to
complete the necessary documents and arrangements for children in Holt care
to be flown to the United States.
W
When Executive Director Jack Adams sent a Holt survey team
to Vietnam in 1972, the situation for children there was similar
to those in Korea at the time of Harry Holt’s initial visit. The
withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam, which began in 1973, left
thousands of mixed race children—Amerasians or, as the Vietnamese called them, buidoi, the dust of life.
By June 1973, Holt had established a reception center in Saigon
and set up an extensive foster home program so that children
could have the individual attention of a family while Holt worked
at finding homes for them. Holt set up two childcare centers in
Saigon and one in DaNang. At that time, some authorities estimated that Vietnam had over 900,000 orphan children, 25,000 of
whom lived in orphanages and were in desperate need of permanent homes.
In the final chaotic hours of the war, as it became apparent
Saigon was about to fall to the North Vietnamese, Holt leadership
chose to use its own chartered flight—a decision that kept Holt
children from being among those who died in the crash of a U.S.
government jet that was part of what became known as the “Baby
Lift.”
Before mid-April, Holt transported nearly a thousand children
from Vietnam to the United States. Most traveled on a chartered
PanAm jet with a volunteer crew—a jet for which Holt had to
purchase special insurance for the one hour it would spend on
the ground in a war zone.
Except for a minor role in uniting Amerasian children
with birth parents in the United States, Holt was gone from
Vietnam for the next 15 years. Holt returned to Vietnam in 1989
at the invitation of the government of Vietnam.
Today, Holt’s efforts in Vietnam stretch from Binh Duong in
the south all the way to Hanoi in the north. And like its earlier
version, the new Holt-Vietnam program serves through a steadfast
commitment to do whatever is best for orphaned, abandoned and
vulnerable children.
Facing page: In the 1970s Holt responded to the needs of thousands of abandoned and vulnerable children in Vietnam, many of
whom were ending up in institutions.
Above, clockwise from bottom left: Holt’s initial work in Vietnam
ended dramatically in April 1975, when Holt evacuated nearly a
thousand children who had been legally freed for international
adoption.
Today Holt’s work in Vietnam encompasses a wide range of services,
including efforts to help at-risk families stay together.
Holt’s commitment to the children of Vietnam was recently evidenced when Holt maintained its programs and services throughout a moratorium on international adoption.
Foster care enables homeless children to benefit from the generous,
attentive care of loving foster mothers and fathers until a permanent family can be found.
Holt staff refused to take children from desperate parents.
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50th Anniversary 2006
www.holtinternational.org 19
“At KBF, we believe that the family is
THE essential structure of society...
where values, traits and attitudes of
individuals are formed and nurtured.
Our goal is simple: enable children to
grow up in the love and belonging of a
family whether it be the birth family or
an adoptive family.”
—Rosario “Cherrie” dela Rosa, KBF
Executive Director
Thailand
Top right: Shortly after the waters of the December 2004 tsunami receded, Holt Sahathai staff arrived on the scene and
began bringing help to families. Rebuilding devastated lives takes time, caring and skills. HSF was well prepared and
committed to provide long-term help for the families of this region. • Top left: Children watch from a porch as they
await a visit from their HSF social worker. Social workers pay home visits to families and children regularly in order to
follow up on their situations and the progress they have made as well as to provide necessary guidance, counseling and
supervision. • Left: Acharn Darawan Dhamaruksa holds Bunchai, a child with multiple birth anomalies, in this 1984 photo.
HSF staff devotedly cared for Bunchai and advocated for his adoption for over eight years until he went to his adoptive
family in the United States. Darawan, who led and mentored the staff that built Holt Sahathai into a leading child welfare
and family agency, says “Holt Sahathai Foundation has been successful because we have stayed committed to our basic
working principle, that mankind owes to the child the best it has to give and that an opportunity to grow up in a loving
family is every child’s right.” • Center: Jintana Nontapouraya, who currently leads HSF as executive director, has served as a
social worker with HSF since the organization’s beginnings. In this 1984 photo Jintana counsels a foster mother.
Above: Finding the best permanent family solution for orphaned, abandoned and vulnerable children is the mission shared
by the Kaisahang Buhay Foundation in the Philippines and Holt International. • Center: KBF celebrated its 30th anniversary
in December 2005. • Top right: Rosario “Cherrie” dela Rosa, Executive Director of KBF, looks in on a baby in care, December
2005. KBF is the only nongovernmental organization in the Philippines licensed and accredited by the Department of Social
Welfare and Development to place children in domestic adoption. • Lower right: Minnie Dacanay, now retired, helped develop and direct many of KBF’s programs through the 1980s. Later she worked with the Philippines and other Asian programs
from the Holt International headquarters in Oregon.
The Philippines
A
As Holt branched out from Korea to Vietnam, and then on to
Thailand and the Philippines in 1975, a new model was maturing.
Although the ultimate goal remained to unite every orphaned,
abandoned or vulnerable child with a permanent, loving family,
the first priority would be to keep a child with his or her birth
parents if that were in the child’s best interest. Holt would accomplish this through a broad range of services, developing a
strong in-country program intent on long-term solutions.
Holt’s work in Korea and Vietnam showed that building a
devoted and capable team from within the country offered many
benefits. As Holt initiated work in the Philippines, Holt began
developing a partner agency led and staffed by Filipino people.
The Philippines presented a unique condition: a childcare
agency was not allowed to be a childcare institution. Holt’s previous programs had been built on providing attentive care until
children could be placed with a family, but in the Philippines,
Holt had to find another solution.
20
50th Anniversary 2006
Holt’s partner agency, the Kaisahang Buhay Foundation (working together), was Holt’s mission adapted to the particular needs
of the Philippines—a model for nearly all of Holt’s future partner
programs. In this case, KBF became a resource for the many
orphanages around the country.
KBF offered technical assistance and financial support to
improve childcare conditions and redirect the institutions toward
a new mission—to move children into permanent families rather
than retain them in their facilities until they were grown. KBF
also developed a model foster care program, single mothers home,
daycare and other services to children.
Most recently, KBF has developed a model independent living
program to support education of children from long-term institutional care.
Over the 30 years since its founding, the reach and expert assistance of KBF has brought hope into the lives of thousands of
children.
N
Nearly 30 years of serving homeless children and families at
risk gave the Holt Sahathai Foundation the tools and skills to
respond to a cataclysmic event—the tsunami of December 2004.
A year later the stories of people served indicate the depth of this
program Holt helped build from the ground up.
In 1975 Holt sent a survey team to Thailand. Having recently
built a program in Vietnam, Holt was ready for expansion. Thailand already had excellent, trained people. Holt could provide
funding and technical assistance. Not long after the survey
was completed, Holt staff gathered a team within Thailand and
together they launched a new organization—the Holt Sahathai
(united hearts) Foundation.
From the beginning, it was a Thai program operated by Thai
nationals. John Williams, who later became Holt’s President and
CEO, helped guide the program over its first four years. Acharn
Darawan Dhamaruksa, at that time a professor of social work at
Thammasat University in Bangkok, led and mentored the staff
who built Holt Sahathai into a leading child welfare and family
agency in Thailand.
HSF serves a large number of vulnerable children through a
wide variety of programs, many of which help birth families stay
together through counseling and assistance. HSF’s strong foster
care program provides a highly nurturing environment for children who are likely to need adoptive families outside of Thailand.
HSF has a remarkably able and flexible program, one that works
with large state programs and helps them develop services and
one that interfaces with foreign governments. In the early 1980s
HSF provided special care for Cambodian refugee children. HSF
continues to develop services for children who have experienced
or are at risk of hurt and trauma.
The programs that Holt Sahathai put into effect along Thailand’s hard-hit southern coast after the tsunami demonstrate
the breadth and depth of its services. Although the programs
prioritize the needs of children who lost parents or caregivers
and families that lost homes and jobs, they include community
rehabilitation and development, counseling and guidance, educational sponsorship and nutrition promotion services, and activity
groups for widows, displaced persons, kinship family groups and
teenagers.
www.holtinternational.org 21
India
Dramatic strides for homeless
and vulnerable children
O
“Our first priority is for the child’s survival...”
These words—spoken some 20 years ago by Lata Joshi, then
executive director of Holt’s partner agency, Bharatiya Samaj Seva
Kendra—reveal the urgency of Holt’s early work in India. In the
mid 1970s mortality of children under two years old in government-run institutions ran as high as 70 percent.
Over the 30 years since then, Holt established work in farflung parts of India such as Kashmir in the far north, Tamil Nadu
in the far south and several places in between. Today, Holt
partner agencies in Pune, Bangalore and Mumbai continue their
life-saving work.
Highly dedicated, caring and professional staff at Bharatiya
Samaj Seva Kendra (BSSK in Pune) and Vathsalya Charitable Trust
(VCT in Bangalore) developed and maintained a level of care that
reduced infant mortality nearly to zero despite taking in some
of the weakest and most vulnerable children. Another longtime
partner, Children of the World, Bombay (CWB) founded by
Children of the World, Norway with Holt support, provides
innovative services to meet the needs of vulnerable children in
its community.
Adoption was almost unheard of in India when Holt established its first India efforts. But today over 60 percent of the
children that come into Holt’s care are placed with parents
within India.
“Caring for children is the best thing....” says Mary Paul,
Executive Director of VCT. “This is not a job. It’s a way of life
for each one of us now. And we wouldn’t want to exchange it for
anything else. And so we thank God for the opportunity to work
for these little ones.”
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50th Anniversary 2006
Top left: Lata Joshi, former Executive Director, led BSSK through many years of
program development and caring for children.
Clockwise from above: Mary Paul, VCT Director, holds a child in care, 2004.
The original BSSK bungalow in Pune, India, c. 1985.
Dr. Navarange examines a baby at the Nishant neonatal unit, 2003.
Children beg on the streets in southern India, c. 1978.
Children receive loving care in the playroom at Children of the World Bombay,
2000.
Roxana Kalyanvala, BSSK Executive Director, holds a child at the Nishant childcare center, 2000.
A childcare worker holds a child in front of an earlier VCT building in Bangalore,
1994.
Holt’s partner agency, “Share Care” in Srinigar, helped homeless children to have
families until fighting in disputed Kashmir forced the program to close. In this
photo then Director of International Programs (later President and CEO) John
Williams holds a child while Share Care director Dr. Shanta Sanyal looks on.
Padmini, photographed while in the care
of BSSK in 1988, reflects the sparkle of life
of a child who is loved. A year later Holt
placed Padmini with an adoptive family in the
United States. Today, she is Pamela Kaspin,
with Kayla, a daughter of her own. Pamela
is a fulltime student planning a career as an
elementary teacher.
www.holtinternational.org 23
Romania
A steadfast role in improving
child welfare
“When I get out of hospital
My brothers are expecting me home
Happy that I am out away
And take me in to their game.”
Latin America
—Translation from a poem
by a young boy dying of AIDS
Close to You Foundation, Romania
Clockwise from top: David Kim, the first person hired by Harry Holt to help him in Korea and who later became President
Emeritus of Holt, was once asked by fellow Holt employee Susan Cox what he believed was the most important contribution of adoption in Korea. He answered without hesitation, ”Elevating the importance of homeless and orphaned
children.” Dr. Kim, who helped lead Holt International into new programs in Latin America, visits with a boy in Holt care
in Bolivia, c.1985 • Holt-Ecuador, under the leadership of long-time Director Magdalena Cuvi, has helped hundreds of
families stay together through family preservation and reunification services. Holt-Ecuador offered a wide variety of
support to families whose children were at-risk. These services included: scholarships for kids, medical treatment, temporary aid, therapies, and legal protection, advocacy and more. • Blanca de Morales, long-time director of Holt’s partner
agency in Guatemala, provides leadership and vision that make it a priority to give each child personal attention every day, c.1999.
• Holt joined with parishioners of a church to help children at the Pimpollo orphanage in southern Mexico—2000–2002.
O
Over the past 50 years Holt has had a presence in over 30 countries, focused on the needs of children and opportunities to serve
them. Holt’s work, particularly in intercountry adoption, is based
in part on regulations established by governments that enable
such placements to take place. Governments change, as do other
events and conditions affecting this sometimes politically charged
service.
In the face of harsh socioeconomic factors that leave children
without families and in dire situations, Holt established programs
in a number of Latin American countries in the mid-1980s. One
hospital in Brazil reported that out of 400 infants born in that
facility each month, 20 percent would be abandoned.
Since the mid-1980s, much has changed, particularly in Latin
America and countries formerly tied to and relating closely with
the Soviet Union. In many countries in Latin America, authorities
made intercountry adoption more restrictive, which in turn made
it difficult to maintain programs.
In countries such as Costa Rica and Chile, conditions improved
for children, lessening the need for international organizations
like Holt International. Although a number of Holt programs in
Latin America never achieved the scale hoped for, the efforts of
Holt’s devoted staff and partners made a profound difference in
the lives of the children they served. In Ecuador, for example,
24
50th Anniversary 2006
our staff established model foster care and family preservation
services that benefited many children.
Holt in Guatemala
Often recognized as a model of ethical practice, Holt’s partner
agency, Asociación Para la Integración Familiar (APIF), strives to
serve the best interests of children, most of whom are young toddlers who have been referred for care and services by the Minors
Courts.
APIF provides loving care to vulnerable children in its childcare centers in Guatemala City. The agency offers an alternative
to large institutional care and includes services to reunite families
and promote adoptive placement when returning home is not in
the child’s best interest.
In 1998, about 30 percent of the children being cared for by
APIF were in temporary foster care programs. Those numbers
are on the increase as APIF works to place these children with
permanent families.
Everyone’s job description includes the responsibility to pay
extra special attention to a specific child within the group and to
meet their needs as they arise. This gives the APIF staff permission to take the time for the children, even if the day-to-day duties
do not always get done.
T
Clockwise from top: When a family struggles to
have enough food to eat and a safe place to live,
they become increasingly desperate and the children
become dangerously vulnerable. Holt’s partner agencies in Romania strive to prevent
the damaging effects of abuse, neglect, abandonment and institutionalization.
• Angela Achitei serves as Executive Director of the Close To You Foundation (CTY), one of two Holt partner
agencies in Romania. CTY serves children and families affected by HIV/AIDS. • “‘Each child has the right to his own
family’ is more than a fundamental right of the child or a motto that has become so well known all over the world.
It is our reason to exist as a Romanian nongovernmental organization,” says Livia Trif, Executive Country Director,
Holt Romania Foundation. • Baby Petru stands on his foster mother’s lap as she showers him with love and kisses in
Tirgu Mures, 1999.
The collapse of the Ceausescu government in 1990 left behind
a deeply wounded society. Haunting images of children in broken-down institutions mobilized aid of all kinds.
Holt International was among the first to enter. But rather than
immediately move large numbers of children out of the country,
Holt trained staff to investigate the backgrounds of institutionalized children. Many of the children, as it turned out, could be
returned to birth parents or adopted by Romanian families. Using
funds provided through a series of USAID grants in the 1990s,
Holt developed a wide range of services in Romania, including
foster care and programs for children who tested HIV-positive.
Holt advocated for well-regulated adoption processes to protect
the rights of children, birth families and adoptive parents, but
weak controls allowed a host of unethical adoption practitioners
to profit from children. In response Romania placed a morato-
rium on all international adoptions in 1999. Many agencies left
the country. But Holt International remained committed to children in need. Holt continues to reach out to vulnerable children
through its two partner agencies in Romania—the Holt Romania
Foundation and Close to You.
Today, Holt’s Romania partner agencies continue to touch the
lives of thousands of children—strengthening their families, preventing abandonment, and enabling families to fulfill their own
wish to provide stable, loving homes for their children.
When Holt President and CEO Gary Gamer visited Holt-funded
facilities in Romania in July 2005 and talked to local officials, the
deputy mayor of one town told him that Holt had “changed the
way we think about children.” In many ways, Holt has brought
about significant changes in the way Romania cares for homeless
and vulnerable children.
www.holtinternational.org 25
China
“Adoption is like a journey. You travel
beautiful mountains and valleys,
but sometimes it’s hard too.”
— Bi Jian Jun, Executive Director of Holt China Children’s Services
and Country Director for Holt’s China Program, speaking at an
orientation for adoptive parents in China to receive their children, March 2005.
Into Our Arms
A father celebrates the joy and wonder of adoption
Four years ago in a sun-dappled room in Wuhan, Hubei Province,
China, 14 families waited to meet their daughters. A provincial official
greeted us through a translator and explained the process we would go
through over the next few days. She concluded her talk with: “We are
giving into your care our daughters.”
She explained that China expected us to love and care for these young
girls. “They will become your daughters soon,” she said, “and when they
do, you will be part of the family of China. I welcome you to our family.”
Above: A child in care, 2004 • Clockwise from top: Bi Jian Jun, Executive Director of Holt China Children’s Services and
Country Director for Holt’s China Program, enjoys the teamwork of her job and considers the work she does for children a
privilege. She says she finds inspiration in those she works with and keeps the goal of finding families for children close to her
heart. Here she hugs a child in care at Lanzhou, March 2005. • The childcare supervisor at the Nanchang Orphanage baby
unit models affectionate care that helps children survive and develop, March 2005. • A foster mother holds a child, Fuzhou,
2004. Foster families lavish children placed in their care with love and attention, and then release them to their adoptive
families. Despite the attachment that invariably grows between these children and temporary parents, most foster mothers
and fathers continue to take in children. • At the White Swan Hotel, Renée Lemley gives daughter Emerson Gray her first
bath after she received her, Autumn 2004. • Holt adoptees Grace Kirkpatrick, left, and Emily Young, right, play dress-up on
Holt International’s first ever Family Tour to China, June 2005. • Jian Chen, Holt’s U.S. Director of International Programs for
China, visits a boy in care at a group home in Nanchang, March 2005.
W
When Holt President, David Kim, and Director of International
Programs, John Williams, surveyed conditions in China in 1993,
they came across a ward in one institution where nearly every
child was dangerously weak.
David picked up one especially malnourished child and asked
for formula. At first the little girl wouldn’t feed, but holding her
tiny body, he massaged her feet to stimulate circulation. The little
girl’s listless eyes regained some luster as she looked at David and
began to feed.
Holt immediately began to mobilize for a significant effort in
the People’s Republic of China, operating at first out of its small
program in Hong Kong and assisting a privately run foster care
project in Guangxi province.
Building on concepts developed in this program, Holt took a
new and unique approach. Among its first efforts was to begin
placing orphanage children into well-managed and loving local
foster homes, combining this with a “Baby Care Unit” that
provided intensive care for the highest risk children in the
orphanage. Holt worked together as an equal partner with
government-run orphanages to initiate programs that could
26
50th Anniversary 2006
gradually be taken over by local management and support,
saving the lives of hundreds
of children while protecting
them from the debilitating
effects of growing up in an
institution.
To this day, Holt enjoys a relationship of trust with the Chinese government and is recognized as
a pioneer in cooperative and culturally sensitive foster care and
other support, reaching out to nearly 3,000 abandoned children
every year around China in locations far from the larger well-traveled cities.
Holt was one of the first American adoption agencies to facilitate adoptions from China and is among those officially sanctioned for placement of children by the China Center for Adoption
Affairs, the government agency that oversees international adoption. Now with offices in Beijing and Guangzhou, Holt stands out
with its team of full-time experienced local staff, who guide adoptive parents on their journey in China and oversee a host of efforts
helping homeless children across China.
That was the day we received Marit. Now 5 years old, she is a true
wonder. She is tall and lithe, excels at ballet and loves to dance. Her
bright, nearly black eyes are a window on a mind that is constantly at
work. Smart, articulate, kind and sensitive, she loves to draw and is
rather good at it. She has been infinitely patient with us as we learn how
to be the parents she needs and deserves. Since traveling to China with
us in 2003 to bring Mattie home, she has grown into a fantastic big sister.
Put simply, she has become the daughter we could only dream about a
few short years ago. When she calls us Mommy and Daddy, we marvel at
our good fortune to be the ones to bear those titles for her and her sister.
Mattie was a tiny 15-month-old when we welcomed her in a hotel
room in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. Since then, Mattie has grown into a
happy, self-assured 3-year-old with an infectious laugh, a personality that
knows no strangers, and a smile that could light up any of the smaller,
Eastern states. She thinks nothing of walking up to any person on the
street and saying, “My name’s Mattie! What’s your name?” We try not to
get too unnerved by this little habit and, to date, the only result has been
that several persons needing a kind word got their day brightened. She’s
taught us quite a lot in two short years.
As always on our “Forever Family Days,” we take a moment to remember the birth parents of our daughters. For unknown reasons they set
our girls on their paths to us. For those acts of hope and love, we will
always be thankful. We only wish that some day we could meet them to
thank them in person and tell them that everything has worked out just
fine.
To those of you who have been on a similar journey of your own, all
we can say is “Ain’t life grand?” And to those of you waiting for that first
moment with your child: May that wait be short, your journey safe and
swift and may it bring you all the joy and wonder we have come to know.
—Tim Chauvin
Nacogdoches, Texas
Top: Tim and Wynter Chauvin
with Marit at the U.S. Consulate
in China, 2001.
That’s Marit Chauvin on the left
and Mattie, with pigtails, on the
right.
www.holtinternational.org 27
Mongolia
Haiti
A
Protecting children in the Western hemisphere’s poorest country
P
After the abrupt dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early
1990s, Mongolia lost all economic subsidies literally overnight.
Some 40 percent of the population still lives below the poverty line.
Half of those are under 16 years old. Unable to provide for their
children, some families abandoned their children. Others sought help
from the government.
Peter and Shay Fontana founded the facility that in 2004 became Holt Fontana Village. In
a country virtually devoid of social services and where many parents are unable to find work
to support even basic human needs, children often suffer the most.
“Orphans literally live on the streets, eating out of garbage cans,” Peter Fontana says.
Holt joined with the Fontanas and began accepting children into care in late 2004, helping to
develop intake policies and childcare procedures to protect the children’s rights and encourage
healthy development.
In 1999 Holt began a partnership with the Naidvar Center in Ulaanbaatar to assist homeless children in Mongolia. Holt provided training and
technical assistance through staff such as John Williams and Gary Gamer,
who went there to advise, and David Lim, who traveled there to lead
workshops. The Holt-supported Rainbow Special Baby Care unit began
caring for toddlers in cooperation with the government institution.
Many of the children enter this program malnourished; however,
the care and assistance provided by Holt enables most of the
children to be healthy by the time they are returned to birth
parents or united with their adoptive parents.
“Here we are in one of the poorest countries in the world, but the Fontana Village is one of the
best childcare facilities anywhere,” says Gary Gamer, Holt President and CEO. “The Fontana’s built
the place and Holt International provides the services. The ‘least of these’ are really coming first.
They really deserve this.”
The village has room for 30 children, and new buildings are under construction. Peter Fontana,
a physicist, installed state-of-the-art water purification and solar electrical systems. Holt provides
the services and is the only agency in Haiti integrating services with the intention of doing family
preservation work. Holt is actively engaged in intercountry adoption for children in care.
L
Like a tidal wave of death, AIDS swept across Africa leaving millions of children without parents. Suddenly young children became the heads of households, trying to raise, protect and provide for themselves and even younger
siblings.
To address this need Holt joined with Action For Children (AFC) to develop
support among extended family members and within the children’s communities to create new stable family units and enable the children to attend school.
Clockwise from top: These seven girls, among the first children to be cared for at Holt Fontana Village, celebrate Christmas 2004 in their finest clothes. • Children in care pose with
staff members in front of one of the Holt-funded houses, June 2005. • This is the doctor
who makes frequent visits to Holt Fontana Village to check on the children’s health. • Shay
Fontana worked briefly for Holt International as a translator in Latin America in the 1980s,
and she remembered Holt when she and her husband, Peter, wanted to develop their work in
Haiti. Shay, shown here with one of her daughters, visits with children in Haiti, c. 2003.
“If no one cares, we do,” says AFC Chairperson Jolly Nyeko, who founded
AFC in 1997. “It changes a child’s whole world view, just to know that someone
outside his household is there for him or her.”
Although international adoption was not permitted at the time, Holt and AFC
developed comprehensive programs to help orphaned Ugandan youth reach
“atenge,” which means stability and commitment to staying together within a
family or community context. This insures as close as possible to family-like
conditions. Dan Lauer, Holt Senior Executive for Latin America, Eastern Europe,
Africa and Haiti, describes AFC’s family preservation program as the most in
depth and comprehensive Holt has.
Uganda
Offering children
a hope and a future
28
50th Anniversary 2006
F
Ukraine
Fresh air and sunshine at a camp in the Ukrainian countryside. Imagine what
this might mean to an HIV-positive child.
AFC’s services contain a community and group component that surrounds
children with community and group support. Services include child sponsorships, grandparent support for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, home-based parenting groups, children’s clubs, parent education, training and start-up funds for
small family-run businesses (every family must work) and other forms of help.
Children from Holt’s street shelter program and from families in crisis attended
last summer’s Sunshine Camp program. Staff got to know the children well and
used this program as a springboard to provide services best suited for them, including foster placements and family reunification and preservation activities.
Holt is working to develop intercountry adoption for those children who were
abandoned.
Established during the tumultuous 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, Holt’s
new Families for Children Project (FCP) is being funded by a three-year, $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Far left: The devastating effects of the AIDS pandemic in subSaharan Africa has left nearly a whole generation of children without parents. Children’s Brigade is one of the initiatives promoted
by Holt’s partner agency in Uganda,
Action for Children. AFC forms small
local councils to determine the best
strategies for children to have safe,
stable homes. • Center: Jolly Nyeko,
Founder and Chairperson of AFC, walks
with a group of youngsters, 2003.
“Our children are our future,” she says.
• Left: AFC Director Lydia Nyesigomwe
hugs two children receiving Holt care
in Uganda, 2005.
Based on lessons learned from long experience in Russia, Holt now provides
family-based care for homeless, abandoned and at-risk children in Ukraine. Holt
focuses on children who are disabled or who have other special needs. Holt also serves
families and children affected by HIV/AIDS. Holt trains social workers and provides family support as a means to prevent and alleviate the impact of HIV/AIDS on children and to
lessen the stigma and discrimination faced by these children.
Holt’s goal is to develop sustainable model programs and improved standards of services that
will reduce institutionalization of children and promote family-based care alternatives, including
family preservation, foster care, family-type homes and domestic adoption.
www.holtinternational.org 29
The Power of One, the Power of Many
by Gary N. Gamer, President and CEO
Holt staff recently celebrated the birthday of
Grandma Bertha Holt by telling stories of her life.
We remembered how she made all children feel special. We
remembered how she faithfully recorded prayer requests—and
God’s answers—in a simple notebook. We all knew Grandma
kept on praying until the person who made the request let her
know the prayer had been answered.
Anyone who met Bertha Holt sensed immediately the pureness
in her heart and actions. People resonated with this purity. It
drew out the best in all of us. And it enabled Holt International
to identify others with the same commitment to children across
national boundaries and cultures.
It drew in Susan Cox, an early adoptee from Korea, who joined
Holt’s Board of Directors at age 24. In 1993 she participated in
designing the Hague Convention of International Adoption Law.
Today she positively affects the lives of many people around the
world as Holt’s Vice President of Public Policy and External Affairs. Susan says that the work she does to secure policies in the
best interest of the child is a direct reflection of the work initiated
by Bertha Holt some 50 years ago, when Bertha led the charge for
legislation enabling the adoption and immigration of the Holt’s
eight children from Korea.
David Kim was drawn in by the tough, tireless and compassionate commitment he witnessed in Harry Holt. In the five decades
since David became Mr. Holt’s first hire in Korea, he has put his
faith into action as Holt’s Ambassador to the World.
Gatherings such as the annual Holt picnic held at the Holt family farm in Creswell, Oregon,
presented an opportunity for families to support one another and share helpful information on
raising adopted children from another country.
United States
They were pioneers—the families who adopted
children during Holt’s early years.
S
Several times they banded together to defend international
adoption from detractors who sought to outlaw the practice.
They had to learn from each other how best to raise their adopted
children. And so they shared a special kinship when they gathered together.
In 1957 Harry and Bertha Holt invited adoptive families to a
sort of reunion on the Holt farm near Creswell, Oregon. That was
the beginning of an annual tradition that has grown and spread
around the United States. Families still get together at Holt picnics—to share their adoption stories, admire each other’s children
and give their children a chance to play with other international
adoptees.
Adoptive family picnics are but one example of Holt’s life-long
commitment to international adoptees and their families. David
Kim, a former president of Holt, recognized the great value of
bringing adult adoptees back for a tour of their birth country.
These “Motherland Tours” enable adoptees to gain a firsthand appreciation for their cultural heritage. Tours often bring the solace
that they were loved in their birth country and that adoption was
a necessity in their lives.
30
50th Anniversary 2006
Top to bottom: Adoptees from several nations appear in
this photo from the 2002 Oregon Heritage Camp.
In collaboration with three other organizations, Holt
sponsored the first international conference for adult
Korean adoptees in 1999 in Washington, DC.
In this 1977 photo of one of the first Motherland Tours
to Korea, Bertha Holt appears in the center with David
Kim at far right.
For child welfare officials, staff and foster parents, the return
of confident, successful, well-educated adult adoptees is a strong
confirmation of the decisions they are making in the lives of children today.
Dr. Kim’s first Motherland Tour brought adoptees back to Korea
in 1975. Since then over 3,000 adoptees have gone on similar
tours to Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, India and,
most recently, China.
In the early 1980s David Kim also developed a camp for young
adoptees. The original camps focused on cultural activities, but
some of the strongest benefits were long-lasting friendships between international adoptees and the opportunity to benefit from
the experiences of more mature adoptee counselors.
In the 1990s Holt developed a collection of services to promote
a successful adoption and adjustment throughout the adoptee’s
life. Some of these “Post Adoption Services” include: referral
services for professional counseling, information searches for
medical or personal history, and searches to connect adoptees
with their birth relatives.
Just last October, we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Holt
Children’s Services of Korea, where Dr. Kim was honored with
the highest civilian award that can be conferred by the Korean
government. Dr. Kim took his unique ability to transcend culture
on behalf of children to many corners of the world.
Former Holt CEOs Jack Adams and John Williams worked closely with Bertha Holt and David Kim. They were inspired to move
Holt International’s mission for every child to have a permanent,
loving home to new levels of professionalism and new geographic
areas. Along with Glen Noteboom, who worked for Holt in a
number of key capacities, they traveled with Grandma Holt to
many countries where Holt was called to set up programs. They
encountered individuals such as Acharn Darawan Dhamaruksa
in Thailand and
Mrs. Lata Joshi
in India. These
two visionaries
became leaders
of agencies in
their respective
countries—agencies that are
unequalled in skill,
commitment and
service to children.
I think you are
getting the picture
here. The torch
has been passed to
many, the flames
have spread and
taken on fresh colors
and shapes through new people and new countries.
Each of these people I mentioned has displayed at least two essential characteristics.
One is faith and the imperative the Almighty brings to this
mission. The Holts’ commitment to Jesus undergirded all that
they did. Such a strong belief requires action and gives hope even
under the most trying of circumstances.
Another is a commitment to children—particularly those who
are powerless—and an understanding that families are crucial for
every child to realize their God-given potential.
Each of the individuals I have mentioned would say that their
success was heavily dependent on others. They made an impact
only because of other’s compassion and commitment. Examples
include:
• the Filipino childcare worker who gives unqualified love
and care
• the government official who listens to that nagging little
voice within that says, “Yes, I can and should put this child
ahead of many other more visible and politically advantageous interests.”
• the U.S. family or a business in China giving Holt financial
support to change the lives of many children
• foster parents in Romania or adoptive parents in India who
can make extra room in their hearts and home to create a
better future for a child
• the distant relative in Uganda who, with just minimal outside support, can take in the orphan who lost her parents to
AIDS.
Engaging people of good will—and such people are everywhere—is crucial to Holt International’s ability to make inroads in
addressing the global crisis of children outside of family care.
I thank all of you taking part in Holt’s mission to children.
Through your prayers, your dedication and your support, you
inspire me and others—just as Harry and Bertha Holt inspired others in their time.
Left: Pat Keltie, long-time Holt social worker who served for many years as the
Director of Holt’s New Jersey office, holds the first child brought into Holt care in
Vietnam. File photo, 1973. • Above: Gary Gamer, Holt President and CEO, holds a
child in care at the Fengcheng orphanage nursery, Jiangxi Province, China 2005.
www.holtinternational.org 31