European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 19, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The plight of amerasian children Grace director of Pearl Buck by Joe Mapother Bremerhaven Bureau the number of amerasian children abandoned by their american fathers has declined in recent although the future remains clouded for thousands of according to the director of the Pearl Buck Grace executive director of the Agency which has helped support and educate More than children in six asian countries during the past two said improved social conditions contributed to the lower abandonment departure of american military forces from Taiwan in the late 1970s also helped lower abandonment she the decline became evident in the late sum said Between sessions of an International conference on gifted and talented children in but in where the foundation has not been Able to operate officially since the North vietnamese takeover in the situation of amerasian children is shrouded in sum in the sum termed the situation if i could find More id have More kids she the foundation is now helping More than amerasian children in the other International agencies have come to the assistance of the amerasian in monthly amerasian flights under the sponsorship of the United nations and accompanied by a Pearl Buck foundation staff member began in More than amerasian children with documentation have left Vietnam for under the sum the logical question is How Many amerasian in Vietnam there i have Only an educated estimate is somewhere Between and children still she Many of the children were identified through a list compiled by the shortly before Saigon now to Chi Minh City fell in the foundation sent letters to the children then under its care asking for information for its sum word got around and Many More amerasian got in touch with the she the names have been sent to the vietnamese but Lack of documentation has held up some she Back in Many amerasian were so afraid that they burned their documentation these Are children of the enemy All of a they Are required to have this amerasian face varying degrees of sum beyond the obvious physical differences from other abandoned amerasian also face the stigma of being fatherless in strongly patriarchal she Steps have been taken to Knock Down some of the barriers facing an but the cultural stigma still sum this year Japan passed the nationality which allowed amerasian to opt for the nationality of the sum in sum there is no such Law and we still have stateless sum said a taiwanese child of american extraction in a married family is an american citizen if registered As an if the child is the child is but if an american father Abandons his taiwanese the child is because of a quirk of sum future children born to the husband less chinese Mother Are also considered to be stateless children Are allowed into schools on Taiwan Only on a guest she the Only Way out for an amerasian is to acquire education and the Pearl Buck foundation relies on Grants and monthly donations of each from individuals to support roughly More than 80 percent of the million spent in 1984 went toward education and support of amerasian the remainder was spent on administration and fund according to the foundations most recent annual from the monthly the child receives a and is put into a general fund for medical and nutritional needs and vocational sum about goes toward overseas staff salaries and the remainder to the Headquarters of the foundation address Green Hills children Are aided within their homelands until they leave sum they have lost their we dont want to orphan them even though they Are not completely at least it is a country they sum the Pearl Buck foundation was founded after world War ii by pulitzer prizewinning author Pearl who spent much of her life in to Aid the illegitimate children of american service members in a photo Vietnam the cultural stigma of being an amerasian results in varying degrees of August 1985 the stars and stripes Page 13