Con Tìm Mẹ is in the News!

We’re honored to share that Con Tìm Mẹ has been featured in the French newspaper Ouest-France. This article tells the story of the brother of a woman, Anne, we previously highlighted after she found her biological mother through our work.

Although he was unable to travel to Vietnam with his sister to meet their mother in person, the article shares how meaningful it has been for him to learn after 50 years that she is alive.

Seeing these stories reach an international audience helps shine a light on the lasting impact of family separation and the power of reconnection.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

Monday, January 12, 2026

Ouest-France

HISTORY

Adopted as an orphan, he learns 50 years later that his mother is still alive

Adopted in Vietnam during the war, Jean-Frédéric Cécillon grew up in France believing his biological parents were dead. Fifty years later, he learns that his mother is alive.

By Marion Dubois

A whirlwind.

In the space of a few days, Jean-Frédéric Cécillon had his life turned upside down a second time. At the same time, he discovered that his mother was still alive.

Born in 1971, in the heart of the Vietnam War, in the city of Tân Mỹ, then in the middle of fighting, Jean-Frédéric’s story begins in tragedy. While his mother was pregnant, his father went to war and never returned.

After giving birth, his mother suffered a severe hemorrhage.

Believing she was going to die, she entrusted her newborn child to the Sisters of Providence in Khánh Hưng, in southern Vietnam.

In 1973, as fighting raged, the orphanage organized the evacuation of Vietnamese children toward France as part of a humanitarian airlift. In 1975, Jean-Frédéric arrived in France, at the age of four, aboard a plane. He was adopted by a French couple, Roger and Marie-Antoinette Cécillon, who also adopted his sister.

“I was convinced my parents were dead”

Jean-Frédéric grew up in France, loved, surrounded, but with a certainty anchored in him: his biological parents were dead.

“I was convinced of it,” he says.

The adoption file indicated no surviving family. As a child, he was sent to boarding school. Then, as an adult, he trained as a farrier. For years, he built his life without questioning his origins.

The search begins:

In 1994, while doing an internship at the Leenders riding school in Jarzé (Maine-et-Loire), he began to wonder.

“At 23 years old, I was starting to ask myself questions,” he explains.

But at the time, information was scarce. The procedures were long, uncertain, often unsuccessful. It was only much later, with the development of DNA testing, that the situation changed.

Jean-Frédéric contacted the association Con Tìm Mẹ, which works to reunite Vietnamese adoptees with their biological families.

A DNA test was carried out. The results were clear.

“I thought I had dreamed it.” Against all expectations, his biological mother was alive.

“When I learned it, I thought I had dreamed it,” he confides.

His mother, today 76 years old, never stopped searching for her child. She believed for decades that he had died. On October 26, 2025, Jean-Frédéric and his sister returned to Vietnam. They met their biological mother and their half-sister. An encounter filled with emotion.

Tears. Silence. Time suspended.

“She never forgot me”

“She never forgot me,” he says.

“She always believed I was alive somewhere.”

For Jean-Frédéric, the shock is immense.

“I learned that my mother had lived all these years thinking she had lost me forever.”

Today, he says he feels at peace.

“I have two families now,” he says.

Two stories. Two countries. One reunited life.

KEY REFERENCES

Jean-Frédéric Cécillon

Born in 1971 in Vietnam.

Adopted in 1975.

All his life, he believed his mother was deceased.

Key dates:

1971 – Birth in Tân Mỹ, south of the Mekong Delta

1975 – Adopted in France with his sister

1994 – Internship at the Leenders riding school in Jarzé (Maine-et-Loire)

2025 – On October 26, reunion with his biological mother and half-sister in Vietnam

Babylift:

In April 1975, as the war came to an end, the Americans launched an operation called “Babylift.” The objective was to evacuate a large number of children from Vietnam.

Associations participated in this evacuation:

In total, 120 children arrived in France, nearly 2,000 in the United States.

“While the episode is little known in Europe, beyond the Atlantic it has marked memories,” explains historian Yves Denéchère, in a scientific article titled

“Babylift: a military-humanitarian American operation to end the Vietnam War.”

Con Tìm Mẹ:

This association, created by My Hương Le, allows adoptees to find their families again through the distribution of DNA kits.

“Our mission is to offer the most reliable platform to reunite Vietnamese families separated by war,” explains the association.

It is thanks to this work that Jean-Frédéric was able to reconnect with his biological mother.

Horse trainer:

For more than thirty years, Jean-Frédéric Cécillon has been a horse trainer. He runs the Leenders riding school in Jarzé. With horses, he says he found a second family.