Adoptee Tour Reunion
Section 1: Organization Information
Name of Organization: Operation Reunite 501 (c) (3) since 2003
Contact Name: Trista Goldberg
Contact Title: Founder, CEO
Contact E-mail Address: Contact Trista Goldberg
Contact phone number: 609-992-7196
Section 2: Key Project Information
1) Project Title: Operation Reunite Adoptee Tour – Vietnam April 2010
2) Category of project for which you are requesting support (CHECK ONE)
Environment
Health
X Community
Other
3) Type of project
X Community event
Other project or program support
4) The Idea. Please provide a 3-4 sentence summary of your project.
Throughout the Vietnam War, thousands of orphans were sent to Western nations for adoption and in April 1975, approximately 3,000 more Vietnamese orphans, mostly babies, were airlifted in a remarkable military and humanitarian effort known as Operation Babylift. Thirty-five years later, these adoptees are now in their prime and are actively seeking to reconnect with one another as part of Operation Reunite, a rapidly expanding organization providing support for the Vietnamese Adoptee Community. To mark the momentous anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and the end of America’s Vietnam War, Operation Reunite is reaching out to Vietnamese adoptees worldwide to gather them for a large scale reunion in Vietnam in April, 2010. This reunion is being organized by Vietnamese adoptees for their fellow adoptees; planning is underway for the many group events, commemorations and cultural exchanges as Operation Reunite seeks to create a meaningful once-in-a-lifetime experience for as many adoptees as possible.
5) Who benefits, and how? What community will benefit from this project? What are the challenges, issues, needs or opportunities that your project will address?
(3-5 sentences)
The April 2010 Reunion promises to be a significant milestone in the development of the Vietnamese Adoptee community and for its individual members. Nearly half of the attendees will be making the trip to revisit their country of birth for the very first time and one of Operation Reunite’s main goals is to grant support and guidance to these adoptees as they embark on this emotional voyage. For other adoptees it will be a rare chance to reconnect with members of this Diaspora after growing up and living their lives for so many years in isolation or without connection to their original homeland. Working together as a group, the trip also provides an opportunity to give back to the greater community of Vietnamese orphans that is still in Vietnam through visits, volunteering, and interaction with orphanages and by showing support to Amerasians who still reside in Vietnam to this day. As a community raised in a pioneering generation of international adoption, it is a huge challenge to bridge geographic and cultural divides while reconnecting with one another and with Vietnam. The reunion in Vietnam and the sharing of experiences with fellow adoptees will undoubtedly benefit all those who desire a connection with the past and a greater understanding where their personal journey first began.
6) Objectives, goals, and results. What are the measurable objectives and goals for the project? How will you document your project and share results?
(3-5 sentences)
Since being adopted has no expiration date, Operation Reunite has as its goal the ongoing development and support of its community and hopes that the successful completion of the April 2010 Reunion will pave the way for many future reunions and interpersonal connections. Supporting and facilitating adoptee searches for family in Vietnam is another ambitious goal of the organization and a comprehensive Vietnamese Adoptee database along with DNA testing and record keeping is already in the works. Just as the whole world watched the mass exodus of orphans in April 1975, attention to the return of adult Vietnamese adoptees in 2010 is also expected. Coverage of the reunion and its resulting documentation will likely serve as rich sources of information for educational purposes and the media. Operation Reunite will draw upon its own diverse and accomplished community members to document the occasion, including independent film makers, professional photographers, educators, community organizers, travel writers and bloggers, all of whom are active participants in the Vietnamese Adoptee Community. Together, their creations will form the voice of the community and the public record of the reunion, accessible to other adoptee communities and to anyone interested in the coming of age of adult adoptees during this historic meeting.
Section 3: Additional Project Information
7) What is the time frame in which your project will take place?
The trip planning stage has already begun and has consisted of detailed surveys on preferences and events for the reunion. Operation Reunite will complete final stages of registrations by November of 2009. The actual reunion will take place over two weeks from April 2nd through April 16th 2010. A detailed itinerary will be provided as the group creates what they want to do together. The timing of the trip is significant as it will begin on the anniversary of the initial Babylift C5A plane crash at its location. This was the first plane that departed Saigon, carrying more than 150 older adoptees that died, while the younger babies on the second floor survived. A number of the individuals who survived the crash will be attending the reunion. Closing ceremonies will commence with a group of orphans singing the song by ABBA “I have a dream.” This is not only a special symbolic date for adopted Vietnamese but also falls at a time when the potential for international media coverage of our event is at its highest given the interest in these landmark anniversaries.
What is the full estimated budget for this project?
The total estimated budget is $125,000 for the reunion in Vietnam. Through our networks of non government organizations in Vietnam and in the United States, Operation Reunite has been able to secure discounted air and hotel rates that will save the group more than $60,000 of our total estimated travel expenses. Most of the funding will be raised privately while adoptees are also creating various fund drives to help financially challenged peers and their family members attend. It’s important for all of us to be a part of this momentous event. Out of the 75 participants, 41 are adoptees and 26 people require financial assistance. Operation Reunite plans to use the sponsorship to help fund what we cannot raise ourselves; unused funds will go to the orphanages in Vietnam, as well as community events focused on the education and awareness of the Vietnamese Adoptees’ experience of connecting to their birth land. The total sponsorship fund we are seeking assistance for is $20,000.
9) Are there any other details you would like to share regarding this project?
Operation Reunite was launched in 2003 to foster relationships within a unique community. These relationships have grown to provide support to not only Vietnamese adoptees, but to their friends and family as well. It is a rapidly growing organization with thousands of members from countries around the globe. While Operation Reunite’s focus is on adopted Vietnamese worldwide, Operation Reunite symbolizes a truly great American story. Operation Reunite represents all that is great about America’s sense of community, inclusiveness, diversity and its ‘can do’ approach. Our diversity and history of migration to living positive lives is the fabric of American life.
Major Operation Reunite achievements include:
- Launching of a website and other electronic resources visited by thousands of people in the US and overseas.
- Being one of the only adoptee organizations to conduct ‘in-country’ research in Vietnam on searching issues. As an organization, we’ve visited Vietnam on these grounds in 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007. These trips are documented with raw footage to capture adoptees searching for their past, with the search leading into small villages in Que Xuan, Bac Lieu, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Hanoi, Da Nang, Vung Tau, Ving Long, Bac Lieu and Saigon (HCMC). We also located the birth mother of a second generation adoptee on our last trip to Vietnam in December 2007. We networked with several of the local TV stations and met with businesses in Vietnam.
- Sponsoring several mini-reunion gatherings are now hosted throughout the world in Boston, San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Washington DC, New York City, Atlantic City, Finland, France, Australia and the United Kingdom. The reunions are the basis for support and friendship, and provide a sense of community for adoptees.
- Being part of collaborative discussions with key community groups from the Vietnamese Diaspora; presentation of key voices from there are hosted on teleconferences.
- Presenting at the Colorado Vietnamese Heritage Camp and serving as a panel voice in 2007 and 2009, in which we shared our unique experience to second generation adoptive parents on current adoption issues and our views of being an adult adoptee.
- Meeting with professors from the University of Santa Cruz, Asian American Studies, resulting in the inclusion of an entire lecture on Amerasian issues. The program director will challenge their students’ assumptions about who Asian Amerasians are.
- Being featured in the Voices of the Asian American Experience, published by ABC-CLIO in the upcoming year. It will be a collection of Asian American primary sources, each of them prefaced by a brief introduction. Vietnamese Adoptees contribute to the Vietnamese immigrants and the Vietnamese American community in a positive way.
- Helping to process the paperwork for citizenship and paid the associated fees for two adoptees who were struggling with possible deportation issues.
- Working alongside a task force to pass a Congressional Bill in 2010 for the Amerasian Paternity Act to help Amerasians achieve citizenship.
- Being interviewed for research based books regarding transracial and transnational adoption for university professors and students.
