ICSA
ABOUT
We’re an all-volunteer international group of adoptees and adoptive parents founded in November 2018. We offer a central source of information to help adoptees from China search for their birth families. We promote awareness in China of adoptees’ desire to know their birth families and the importance of DNA testing, primarily through province search posters shared widely on Chinese social media and through DNA events held in China.
WHO & WHERE WE ARE
Canada
Lydie Bouffard
Netherlands
Jolanda Blaauw
Minke Engbers
Marieke Haak
Marike Hendriks
Lydia van der Linden
Mieke Welberg
New Zealand
Julie Jones
Sweden
Marianne Jonsson
United States
Holli Chan
Cheri Hawkins
Sarah Hopkins
Michele Ray Huff
Linn Nelson
Julia Norris
Kathy Remley
Katina Rossow
Kathy Schroepfer
Corinne Wilson
Bea/Bee Zheng
United Kingdom
Zandra Pavey
Graphic/Web Design
Zoe Roane-Hopkins (USA)
OUR HISTORY
ICSA came together in November 2018 - a convergence of enthusiastic people with good ideas.
Myah Revilock started if off by creating the first province search poster for Hunan province. When others wanted to replicate it, she developed a set of templates, one for each province. Jolanda Blaauw then gathered all the poster administrators together into a WeChat group, and within a week, we had our name, a Weibo account, and a logo! We're an all-volunteer, international (six countries!) group of 23 adoptees and adoptive parents with a wide range of talents, all focused on the goal of helping Chinese adoptees find their birth families.
We quickly grew beyond posters, creating how-to guides, a comprehensive website, and Facebook and Instagram accounts.
By 2022, nearly 1,700 adoptees have joined us on 30 posters. Twenty-two have found birth families - not all only from the posters, but by exploring all options.
