Visit to Ilsan

We support a special needs child in Korea through Bethany Christian Services and Holt International. Since we were in Korea for our adoption we decided to see if we could visit our sponsored child, something that most people never get the chance to do. While we were making arrangements for our visit we sadly learned that the little guy we had been sponsoring had recently died. The agency was very embarassed that we had not yet learned of his death, but we told them that we understood and that we wanted to continue supporting a child in their program.

We travelled north of Seoul to Ilsan Village, where Holt runs a home for special needs children. Ilsan Village was founded in the 1950's by Harry and Bertha Holt, they were some of the pioneers of international adoption, spurred into action by the many homeless children from the Korean war.

There are currently 260 residents from age 1 to adult living at Ilsan. The residents are grouped into family units with two house mothers that rotate shifts to provide 24 hour care for the residents. It was neat to see the children helping each other as different children were able to do different things.

At Ilsan the children are able to get the therapy that they need. Holt also runs a special needs school attended by Ilsan residents and children who are able to live at home with their parents. As the children grow up at Ilsan they are able to stay or move out as their abilities allow and Holt provides on-sight work programs where Ilsan residents can work and earn money.

It was definitely inspiring to see all that Holt is doing for the children at llsan village and also to see what the children are able to accomplish. We sometimes forget that children with disabilites are people who can learn and grow and make a contribution to the world. One of the highlights of our day at Ilsan was having lunch in the home of Molly Holt, daughter of the founders of Holt. Molly is now in her 70's but she is still a tireless child advocate. Her house is used as the intensive care unit for children who are having problems in their family units at Ilsan. It was interesting to chat with her about parenting and discipline, she has all the same issue at her house as we do at ours :-)

The residents of Holt's Ilsan village are eligible for adoption and each year up to half of the new residents are adopted. But there are still many children needing a Sponsor. You can follow the link behind the word Sponsor if you wish to sponsor a child or even consider a one-time donation. It has been a blessing for us to see all the good work that our money supports and we can confirm first-hand that this organization is making a real impact on the lives of countless children who would otherwise be forgotten and neglected.

Take a look at our slide show of photo's from Holt's Ilsan Village: