A forum explored better methods of adoption in South Korea, one of the biggest "orphan exporters" in the world. In the fourth Forum for Life, Kim Yu-kyung stressed the need of family-centered protection for the orphans "to reduce their adoption by foreign families and to secure their rights." She said social security/responsibility for the unmarried mothers should be strengthened so they can raise their own children in their "original family". The associate research fellow of Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs also recommended the expansion of the governmental aid for the adopting families and stricter screening of adopter parents. The forum was jointly organized by Seoul Caritas, Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Seoul archdiocese-run Pyeonghwa Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) yesterday at the Myeongdong Cathedral. Welfare Minister Chin Soo-he and other government officials participated in it. Professor Park Mee-jung at the department of social welfare of Daewon University College told the participants that post management for the adoption families has not been systematic. She raised an example that grown-up adoptees would want to find their blood parents and the institutions need to support them systematically. According to the Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Yeom Su-jung who gave a keynote speech, from 1999 to 2010, up to 240,000 children were adopted but only 74,000 or 31 percent of those were by local adopters. Related report Catholic Agency Tries To Change Local Attitudes Toward Adoption KO14326
