Holt's work in
Korea
Korea
began in 1956

Holt International pioneered foster care in Korea in the 1960s as a more nurturing alternative for children living in institutional care. While children wait to be united with a permanent adoptive family in Korea or the U.S., sponsors and donors provide the monthly support and resources needed for children to stay in the attentive care of a foster family. In a trained and dedicated foster family, children receive the individualized care they need to thrive, and to someday create a strong, loving bond with their adoptive family.

Concerned about the children who weren't adopted, especially those with profound medical and developmental conditions, the Holts built a long-term care facility in the early 1960s near the village of Ilsan in South Korea. Today, the Holt Ilsan Center is recognized around the world for the care they provide to children and adult residents with special needs. At the Ilsan Center, residents benefit from specialized, state-of-the-art rehabilitation and therapy, vocational training, independent living training and a special needs school — providing greater quality of life to adult residents, and preparing children to join their permanent, loving families through adoption.

Since Holt's beginning in Korea, we have advocated alongside the Korean government for the growth of domestic adoption by families within Korea. Today, Holt Korea is the leading domestic adoption placing agency in Korea, allowing for many orphaned and abandoned children to be adopted by loving, permanent families.

Since 1981, Holt International and Holt Korea have operated the babies' home as a haven for families in crisis — a place where they can bring their children for temporary care and support while they work to get back on their feet. While Holt Korea manages the babies' home, Holt International finds sponsors to help provide food, clothing and other basic necessities for every child in care. With the support of their sponsors, the children at Jeonju have everything they need to thrive while they wait to rejoin their birth families, or if that's not possible, to join a loving adoptive family in Korea.