Terminally ill Korean Adoptee Working to Help Other Orphans Find Homes

Amy Saxon of the Associated Press has written a story about California businessman Sam Han, a 65-year-old terminally ill cancer patient who is dedicating the rest of his life  to helping orphans.

Han was separated from his parents during the Korean war, was taken in by a farming family for a time, and then survived on the streets of Seoul. A chance encounter with an American working in Korea after the war led to his eventual adoption:

[Han] ... dreamed of becoming a doctor to help the sick he saw lying in the fields he crossed when his family fled.

A church official helped him find a place to stay in a piping hot room above a bread oven and a job cleaning the bakery below.

That left the 12-year-old little time to sleep - let alone study.

He needed a way out.

Han went to a local hospital, hoping to learn about medicine. A receptionist tried to shoo him away, but two American officials who overheard his dogged conversation with the receptionist asked to speak with him.

One of them was Arthur Schneider, a forestry expert and University of Minnesota professor in Korea to help rebuild Seoul National University after the war. After listening to the boy for two hours, Schneider offered to pay for his education.

Over the next four years, the two became close. When Schneider's contract was running out, he petitioned to adopt Han and bring him to the United States.

Schneider had to prove Han's parents, missing for a decade, were no longer alive. They learned Han's father had died. They tracked down his mother, who had remarried, and she agreed to let her son go to America.

Schneider then had to persuade U.S. lawmakers to let him bring the 16-year-old across the Pacific. U.S. law did not let single parents bring adopted children from overseas, and Schneider lobbied hard for an exception.

Copies of letters sent to lawmakers by Schneider's friends and family touted his character, Han's potential as a future American and the positive effects the pair's travel could have on diplomatic relations with Korea.

In 1961, Congress passed the bill on Han's behalf.

Han remembers scores of reporters waited for them to arrive at the airport in New York.

"I have been very fortunate. I have been much loved by so many people," Han said, recalling his first trip to America.

Han grew up to be a highly successful businessman, but when he was diagnosed with cancer eight years ago, he sold off most of his assets to clear debts from a struggling venture. He then moved in with his daughter and sunk his last $50,000 into founding the  Han-Schneider International Children's Foundation, an all-volunteer organization that sends meals to two state-run North Korean orphanages and help support orphanages in Cambodia and Tanzania.

He is also lobbying for a bill to encourage Congress to let Americans adopt North Korean orphans. Opponents say the proposal could prevent families from reuniting and prompt trafficking of North Korean children.

Han, however, believes the bill will help children, like the destitute boy he once was, make a new life.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/28/MNLS1H0K0L.DTL&ao=2#ixzz19WV6xqDi

Comments

[Christine Braen Futia]

Wow.