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Adopt-a-Child 2021 “Something That Has to Be Done” Inter view with Sarah Hale
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
January 2022
FEATURE
G
wangju News (GN): Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. First of all, could you please give us an overview of the Adopt-a-Child program? Sarah Hale: Adopt-a-Child Gwangju was founded in 2010 by Al Barnum. Its main goal is to get Christmas gifts for children at the orphanages in Gwangju. We began with simple gifts, then shifted to winter clothing, and now we have a 50,000-won budget for each child we serve to pick whatever gift they want in that price range. We have covered at most nine orphanages in the city but have been focusing on Sungbin Girl’s Home and Ilmaek Boy’s Home for the past few years. GN: What is your role in the program? Sarah Hale: I am the president of the organization, but we have not had a group of people working on the program for some time due to the pandemic, so the title seems silly. Technically, it is just myself and Yuri Lee, who helps me w i t h finding impossible items in the Korean online shopping sphere and is my go-between with the orphanages we cover each year. There are also always friends and volunteers that help wrap gifts, drop them off, and write Christmas card messages.
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GN: Why do you feel it is especially i mp o r t a nt to support children who live in orphanages? Why is this a special cause for you?
Sarah Hale: I do not find it a special cause necessarily, just a necessity. While Christmas is not as much of a family holiday in Korea, it is still visible around the country and celebrated widely. I do not want one of these kids to not have a present they can share and show their friends at school like the other children. It is also something they get to have full control over and spend however they like. Gifts have included a professional coffee-making set for a boy who wanted to become a barista, a mattress for an older boy about to move out, name-brand fashion items they would not normally be able to afford, a giant kitchen set for a little girl, and an air fryer for an older girl also about to move out. It is not that it must be Christmas, but just that every culture has a familial celebration where gifts are exchanged, and that should not mean that kids in situations out of their control should not be able to celebrate, too. GN: Organizing and carrying out this program every year is a lot of work. What makes you want to keep doing it year after year? Sarah Hale: I have no idea. It is very rewarding when we drop off the gifts, and I love seeing the pictures. It is just something that I think has to be done. I do not have much of a poetic response to why I continue to do it. I just cannot imagine not doing it. GN: Were you ever involved in any activities like this before coming to Korea? Sarah Hale: Yes, I was. I volunteered when I lived in Constanta, Romania, in 2006–2007 at an orphanage for children who were HIV positive and also in an orphanage in Bulgaria, when I lived there in 2009–2010, that did a similar Christmas gift exchange. I started volunteering here at Sungbin Girl’s Home in 2012 and from there got involved in the Adopt-a-Child program in its infancy. GN: We understand that some of your traditional fundraising methods are on hold because of COVID-19. How have you been working around this?
2022-01-06 �� 9:27:54
