Photo (left, click to enlarge) by Hubert van Es (6 July 1941 – 15 May 2009) of people trying to escape from a Saigon rooftop on 29 April 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War.
As someone adopted from a Vietnamese orphanage during the war era, famous images like this (see more at http://bit.ly/b19jYB and http://bit.ly/aNFifW ) can prompt a certain state of wonder and questions such as: “Could any of our lost Vietnamese relatives be in this photo?”, “Where are they today?”, “How did things turn out for adoptees and refugees who moved abroad and for those who stayed in Vietnam, and the soldiers (of all different ethnicities), some who fathered children in Vietnam and so on?”
Reflections by various adopted Vietnamese in our global community, all an inspiration, are currently being posted at the links below. Thank you to all these individuals, some who came out as part of Operation Babylift and some who arrived in the months and war years before then, for sharing their special 35th anniversary reflections with the community of adopted Vietnamese and their supporters today, and the generations that follow. These are the stories of our community, that give strength and resilience, insight and compassion, and also hope and renewal.
’35th Personal Reflections’ Project editor
Adopted from Vietnam in 1972,
Founder of Adopted Vietnamese International (AVI)
Official deadline has closed but if you would like to make a late contribution please email Indigo Willing: adoptedvietnamese@hotmail.com and for more info visit here
35th Anniversary Personal Reflections
Below are contributions of adopted Vietnamese AVI members reflecting on the 35th Anniversary of the Vietnam War, Operation Babylift and the adopted Vietnamese community. All contributions are the property of the authors and AVI, and should not be duplicated without contacting adoptedvietnamese@hotmail.com so the authors AVI Admin
can be notified and credited accordingly. If you want to share this info on a blog via links to the original site here, or distributing the link for educational purposes, please also contact us as we’d love to know where our stories and voices are being shared.
- 35th – Australia – Kim Edgar’s Reflections
- 35th – Australia – Jen Fitzpatrick’s Reflections
- 35th – Australia – Simon Keogh’s Reflections
- 35th – Australia – Sarai Le’s Reflections
- 35th – Australia – Emma Pham’s Reflections
- 35th – Austria – Mý Huê McGowran’s Poem
- 35th – France – Maya Feugere’s Reflections
- 35th – Germany – Patrick L’s Reflections
- 35th – UK – Tuyet Carr’s Reflections
- 35th – UK – Jaki Clibbon’s Reflections
- 35th – UK – Safi Thi-Kim Dub’s Reflections
- 35th – UK – Jessica Emmett’s Reflections
- 35th – UK – Le-Thanh’s Reflections
- 35th – USA – Kevin Minh Allen’s Reflections
- 35th – USA – Trista Goldberg’s Reflections
- 35th – Vietnam – Khanh Dn Oehlke’s Poem