Child Sponsorship and International Adoption Stories

For more than a decade, Dr. Joseph Ha was an important part of Holt — a friend and ambassador, a supporter and advocate. When he died in 2010, after only a year of service on Holt's board, he left behind a remarkable gift — one that continues his mission to bring education and opportunity to those less fortunate, and defines his personal legacy.

Dr. Joseph Ha with his three granddaughters, who he doted upon and loved dearly. In the last few weeks of his life in the hospital, Dr. Ha asked his eldest granddaughter, 12-year-old Lainey, what she most wanted, and she replied that she wanted a dog. Dr. Ha wasn't necessarily a dog person, and his daughter Karen even recalls times when Dr. Ha would feel confused how people could lavish dogs in gifts as if they were people.
Yet, every morning, Lainey's dog Pepper runs into the kitchen dressed in clothes and with braided ear hair. She’s become the inside joke in the house, and also a beloved member of the family.

THE FIRST FEW TIMES Dr. Joseph Ha spent Christmas at Holt’s Ilsan Center — a long-term care facility in Korea — his wife and daughter had no idea what he was doing.

Perhaps they thought he was away on business, which was common in his role as Nike’s vice president of international business and government relations. As a Korean man himself, with an extraordinary talent to make and connect friends, Dr. Ha spent a lot of time overseas, particularly in Japan, China, Korea and Southeast Asia.

However, Dr. Ha wasn’t in Korea for business — he was there for a party, one that he threw every year for more than 10 years.

Ilsan is a very special home, and one of Holt’s most historically significant programs, since it was the first care facility in Korea to offer a loving, permanent environment to orphaned and abandoned children with special medical needs. Dr. Ha‘s passion for Ilsan and Holt International’s work in the region prompted him to come every Christmas bearing gifts — Nike coats and shoes, toys and treats — and anything to make the residents feel special. Susan Cox, Holt’s vice president of policy & advocacy, says that Dr. Ha came to know many of the children, as well as Harry and Bertha Holt’s daughter Molly — who devoted her life to caring for the residents at Ilsan.

“Most years, he would be there to celebrate with the kids, wearing a Santa suit and laughing and having as much fun as the children,” Susan says.

Dr. Ha’s daughter, Karen Chi, says the orphans inspired her father. This is perhaps rooted in the fact that Dr. Ha was himself an orphan.

There are gaps in Karen’s understanding of her father’s childhood, perhaps because Dr. Ha also found his youth to be a bit of a mystery. Dr. Ha was orphaned during the Korean War, or at least he thought he was. He also had memories of older and younger siblings, so he often wondered if he had been abandoned — maybe, he thought, because of his very small stature. Even in adulthood, Dr. Ha stood barely 5 feet tall.

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