Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS) - Formerly Eastern Child Welfare Society (ECWS).
Update on January 28th, 2026.
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Below is a refined version (through ChatGPT) of the original text that we posted a few years ago in 2022, which was our summary of what a native Korean speaker posted in English.
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Compiled background information on ESWS (formerly ECWS), based on KoRoot (2022):
The following information is drawn from a Korean-language publication titled A 30-Year History of ESWS (formerly ECWS).
Kim Deuk Hwang (김득황), the founder of ESWS, was reportedly a student at Fuller Missionary School (or possibly a university student) when he met the head of the David Livingstone Missionary Foundation in October 1970. Through this connection, Kim received a full scholarship and free student dormitory accommodations. At the time, the David Livingstone Missionary Foundation expressed interest in supporting churches, orphanages, and anti-communist initiatives.
Kim Deuk Hwang had previously served as a vice minister in the Korean government and was also an elder in a Korean church. In 1971, he established the Korea Livingstone Missionary Foundation. Later that same year, in November 1971, the organization was renamed the Korea Christian Crusade.
The Korea Christian Crusade later became known as ESWS. In 1972, Dillon, associated with the David Livingstone Missionary Foundation, initiated or formalized an agreement with the Korea Christian Crusade concerning adoption work. However, the organization encountered significant difficulties obtaining official authorization from the Korean government to conduct adoption services. Approval was delayed, and formal permission was finally granted on July 29, 1972.
Within a year of receiving approval, ESWS’s domestic adoption program failed. As a result, the organization stopped accepting orphans and transferred all children in its care to Holt International. According to the account in the ESWS history book, ESWS staff blamed Holt staff for the situation. Foster mothers and social workers reportedly reacted with deep distress and grief.
The failure was attributed largely to misunderstandings—or deliberate disregard—of prevailing domestic adoption practices in Korea at the time. In 1972, domestic adoption was almost exclusively conducted as closed adoption. Adoptive parents typically received children around the time of birth and presented them publicly as their biological offspring. ESWS social workers either did not understand this practice or knowingly chose not to follow it. The book states that staff were aware of the norm but ignored it, which ultimately contributed to the program’s collapse.
Beginning in 1973, the organization shifted its focus toward overseas adoption.
The book also comments on contemporary adoption practices in Korea, noting that open adoption remains rare. In some cases, domestically adopted individuals reportedly leave their adoptive families after learning the truth about their adoption—whether accidentally or through malicious disclosure. According to the authors, some of these individuals later experience housing instability, early parenthood, and may ultimately place their own children for adoption, creating what the book describes as a “vicious cycle.”
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Below is the original text that we posted, which is our summary of what a native Korean speaker posted in English. Please see the version which we recently refined through ChatGPT above.
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A bit of hodgepodge information about ESWS (formerly ECWS) from KoRoot (2022):
From: An ESWS (Formerly ECWS) 30 years history book written in Korean:
김득황 KIM Deuk Hwang (Fuller missionary school? or university? student) the founder of ESWS met the head of the David Livingstone Missionary Foundation in Oct, 1970. KIM Deuk Hwang received a full scholarship and free student dormitory accommodations. The David Livingstone Missionary Foundation was interested in supporting churches and orphanages, and anti-communism projects also. KIM Deuk Hwang was a retired vice-minister and elder in a Korean church. Later he established the Korea Livingstone Missionary Foundation in 1971. In the same year in November 1971 he changed the organization name to Korea Christian Crusade.
Korea Christian Crusade became ESWS. In 1972, Dillon (under David Livingstone) sent / formed an agreement about adoption to / with Korea Christian Crusade. But it was difficult for Korea Christian Crusade to get permission to do adoption business from the Korean government. So it was delayed..and finally in 1972 July 29th…they got permission from the government.
In a year, ESWS failed in the adoption business….so they stopped receiving orphans...and handed all the children over to Holt. The staff of ESWS blamed the staff of Holt. All of the foster moms and social workers cried (and were greatly upset)…it was about domestic adoption...because in 1972…as soon as ESWS started ADOPTION...at that time all domestic adoption was closed adoption, so it failed. Usually domestic adoptive parents...they announced adoptive child is their natural born child (by receiving the child around the delivery date). But ESWS social workers didn't know this or ignored this. In this book, they said they knew but ignored it. So they failed...
From 1973....started to look for overseas adoption.
Nowadays...only a few adoptive parents do open adoption. Several domestic adoptees...leave the adoptive family when they hear the truth accidentally or maliciously…They become youth on the streets…become single parents...again…send children for adoption…it’s a vicious circle.
David Livingstone Foundation and Brothers Home of Busan.
Trigger Warning: Extremely upsetting content.
The David Livingstone Foundation unfortunately had a major connection to Brothers Home of Busan.
For more information, please see:
AP Exclusive: Abusive S. Korean facility exported children
”Records show that at least one agency that handled at least five of the adoptions that the AP found, Eastern Social Welfare Society, at the time called the Korea Christian Crusade, paid Brothers $10 a month for every child at the facility in 1972. Eastern president Kim Jin Sook, the daughter of founder Kim Duk Whang, responded with irritation when reached for comment and questioned why the AP was investigating a story that would harm South Korea’s image.”