Viet Nam Family Search
Our shared journey
We are an adoptee-led not-for-profit organization that offers search services for Vietnamese intercountry adoptees and their families. As an adoptee-led organization, know that you will be supported by a network of people who will bring lived experience and insight to support you on your journey.
We work from the perspective that each journey is unique and that understanding the story of each person we work with is integral to the process of searching. We operate from the principles of integrity, accountability, and empathy and place priority on the person at the center of the journey.
Our work involves collaboration with other trusted organizations within Vietnam that can provide access to translators and advocates who help to navigate cultural barriers and language differences. We have access to records that may further assist you with your search.
“We prioritise the person at the centre of each journey.”
Our history
Viet Nam Family Search was born out of the need to create an adoptee-led, community-based search service which provided culturally appropriate support for Vietnamese adoptees.
Prior to our formation in the early 2000s, adoptees had developed informal networks of support for Vietnamese adoptees and their birth families. As online discussion boards and social media developed over time, intercountry adoptees were able to connect globally and organise to advocate for one another.
The informal networks coalesced into what was known as InterCountry Adoptee Support Network (now InterCountry Adoptee Voices), was formed in 1998 during the creation of The Colour of Difference (2001), a book containing the stories of intercountry and trans-racial adoptees across Australia.
In 2005, the documentary Operation Babylift was written and produced by an adoptee, Dai Le. With the creation of this documentary, global connections were forged between the founding members of Viet Nam Family Search, Sue Bylund (nee Luiten) (Western Australia), My Huong Le (Vietnam), and Jason Kayser (United States).