ICAV Lynelle Intro

Lynelle is the founder of InterCountry Adoptee Voices (ICAV), beginning in 1998. She is a Vietnamese adoptee residing in Australia (Sydney). She has built ICAV into an extensive worldwide network amongst the intercountry adoptee community and provided one of the first platforms worldwide for intercountry adoptee led organisations and individuals to collaborate, share, and encourage one another, regardless of sending or adoptive country.

In the first decade, Lynelle focused locally and built strong and positive relationships with the Australian Federal Government responsible for intercountry adoption (DSS & AGD) and most State Central Authorities in Australia. She also built lasting relationships with the majority of Australian NGO post adoption support organisations who provide intercountry adoption services to adoptees. This advocacy at government level in Australia, resulted in free psychological counselling to all intercountry adoptees in Australia from Relationship Matters, access to a free Hotline for all intercountry adoptees for visa, passport, birth country queries; and a free Search & Reunification Service to all intercountry adoptees via International Social Services, Australia for 2 years, which sadly, despite much advocacy, ended mid 2018 after helping over 200 adoptees and families. Today, Lynelle’s work has extended to include international networking and relationship building with other Central Authorities and organisations who work in or are connected to intercountry adoption.

Over the years, Lynelle has presented at many seminars to governments and related organisations nationally and internationally, including adoption related conferences. She has written, edited and collaborated to publish extensively on the experiences of intercountry adoptees. The book The Colour of Time was her brain child which she edited, compiled, and published in June 2017 in collaboration with ISS Australia, funded by the Australian federal government.

In 2019, Lynelle was invited to represent ICAV at The Hague Working Group to Prevent & Address Illicit Practices in Intercountry Adoption and brought together a group of leaders from around the world to contribute to this important forum. She was also guest speaker at the US Department of State Intercountry Adoption Symposium, bringing with her a group of 10 American intercountry adoptee leaders to have a say and become visible in American intercountry adoption policy & practice. Lynelle continues to elevate the intercountry adoptee voice around the world and encourages adoptee leaders to do likewise.

Lynelle has an IT and business background, having worked at large corporations, IBM and PwC. Her various roles have included managing large contracts, delivering outsourced services, sales and client management, crisis and problem management, managing high functioning IT specialist teams around the world, and bringing people together to deliver a complete IT service.

This website is funded and provided by Lynelle as a volunteer in her spare time.

List of blogs, media, books and resources that Lynelle has written and contributed to over the years.

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