Giving Back

A while back I wrote a book review on a book that made a huge impact on me. I soon read the follow up book to that one, that once again, became so impactful.

For a while now, I have been thinking about what more I could be doing to help.

I Wish for You A Beautiful Life and Dreaming A World are two books that I highly recommend to every adoptive parent and adoptee from South Korea. We should read about what some of these birth mothers go through. For me, it changed the way I thought about their decisions. Additionally, the proceeds from the sale of these books, is donated directly to Ae Ran Won.

From what little I know about my own history, it is possible that a home like this could have helped my own birth mother in her situation.

I feel in many ways as though it is my calling, my duty, my honor, to help facilities like that of Ae Ran Won, an unwed mother's home in Seoul that provides services to woman who either choose adoption for their child, or to keep them and raise them as single mothers, something that is a long way away from being accepted in the Korean culture.

Not too long ago, I recieved this response from the director of Ae Ran Won after inquiring about what I could do to help.

Dear Kimberly, My Kyung:

Thank you for reading 2 books, I wish for you a beautiful life and Dreaming a world.

Aeranwon has supported the mothers to get their self-reliance for keeping their chidren. According to last year's statistics, 82% of the mothers chose raising babies instead of giving babies up for adoption. So Aeranwon needs funding.

Fund raising for the unwed mothers and their children in Korean society is very difficult because of a lot of prejudice and discrimination toward them.
If you help raise funds for them it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
Sang Soon Han
Director of Ae Ran Won

Because I am not independently weathly, nor have unlimited funds to give, I have decided to do anything I can to help raise funds to give to Ae Ran Won.

To put into perspective what the money is used for:
• $300–500 can support one mother’s schooling or vocational training for a month.
• $100 (less than $3 a day) can feed a baby for a month.
• $50 (less than $1.67 a day) can buy baby supplies for a month.
• $30 (less than $1 a day) can buy a textbook for a mother’s education.

A portion of the proceeds from every sale in my Etsy Store goes directly to Ae Ran Won to use however they choose. But now through the end of October, for every hat sale in my store, I will personally make an additional hat that will be donated to Ae Ran Won.

Many of the birth mothers who come to Ae Ran Won for help, leave everything behind, including their families and jobs and possesions. My hope is for these birth mothers to have something to be able to put on their babies at birth. And whether they ultimately decide to go on and raise their own child, or choose adoption, it will hopefully be a keepsake to remember their time at Ae Ran Won.

The hat style that I will be making is currently out being photographed, but I will post a picture of these adorable newborn hats as soon as I have one! I appreciate you taking the time to read this post, and hope that you will help me spread the word. I would love to send at least 30 hats and hope to have them completed to send by the end of the year.

I wish there was more that I could do personally, but for now, this is my way of giving back.