Omma Poom Park Dedication
In Paju South Korea on June 13-14, 2025
Omma Poom Park - the world’s first memorial park dedicated to Korean adoptees and their birth families. It offers a meaningful space for reflection, healing, and reconnection for thousands of adoptees returning to explore their roots and honor their histories. The dedication took place on June 13 and 14. I had the opportunity to submit my name and baby picture to add to the Wall of Names and Adoptee Voices. A Korean Adoptee who attended the dedication was able to capture the images. I am grateful for her. Thank you, Michelle Leco.
The city of Paju, South Korea, is located just south of Panmunjeom, at the 38th parallel, and near the Demilitarized Zone. Beginning in 2017, Paju began developing a memorial park named Omma Poom, dedicated to the approximately 200,000 Korean children who were adopted and raised around the world. Set on the grounds of the former U.S. military base Camp Howze, the park’s location is equally significant. Initially established in 1953 and returned to South Korea in 2007, the transformation of this land into a memorial park marks a decisive shift from a history of division to one of reconciliation and healing.
In September 2018, the park was formally dedicated at a ceremony attended by local government officials, adoptees from around the world, birth families, and supporters of the adoptee community. For the dedication, Korean adoptees were invited to submit photos and letters with personal messages to be displayed at the ceremony.
The park’s name, Omma Poom, carries deep significance: "Omma" means "mother" in Korean, and "Poom" evokes the comfort of a mother’s embrace. The park is designed to serve as both a tribute to the enduring bond between adoptees and their birth families and a space for healing the wounds caused by decades of separation.
This excerpt is taken from https://meandkorea.org/ommapoom2025
After hearing an adoptee (Brigadier General Steve) speak at the ceremony, the things he said resonated with me. He said that “as adoptees, we share the same story of resilience, identity, and longing for belonging. We share gratitude alongside grief, opportunity alongside loss, and belonging alongside isolation. We’ve answered difficult questions from others and ourselves. We’ve searched for reflections of ourselves in faces, culture, and history. Korea has memory and meaning - a space where history, identity, and heart intersect.” As I have said before, adoptees get each other. We know!
Thank you sharing this. I had not heard about the park.
How special!!