The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) enjoins the nation to advocate for legal adoption and help abandoned and neglected children have families to call their own.
This month of love, the DSWD, together with partner agencies, raises public awareness on homeless children waiting to have their own families as it leads the nationwide celebration of Adoption Consciousness Week from February 15 to 24.
To kick off the celebration, a formal program shall be conducted on February 15 at the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Auditorium.
More than two hundred members of the National Organizing Committee (NOC), adoption advocates, as well as adoptive families are expected to participate in the kick-off program. NOC members include national government agencies and member-agencies of the Association of Child Caring Agencies (ACCAP), which are strong advocates of adoption and foster care.
The theme for this year’s celebration, “Legal na Ampon Ako: Anak na Totoo” (A Child Finds Worth in Legal Adoption), emphasizes that adopted children have the same rights as the biological ones.
The theme further reinforces the need for prospective adoptive families to consider legal adoption as the only option to secure the best interest of the child.
The DSWD will also formally open a photo exhibit that will showcase encouraging bonding moments of some adoptive families and their children.
The public may visit the exhibit at the SM Mall of Asia during the weeklong celebration.
Likewise, those who are interested to adopt may visit the adoption help desks at selected SM malls nationwide, as well as in Trinoma, Market Market, and at the Festival Mall from February 20 to 21. Social workers and adoption experts are on duty to respond to queries.
To cap the weeklong event, an adoption forum shall be held on February 17 at the Department of Education, Central Office, Pasig City.
Appeal to families
Meanwhile, DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said that there are children in different centers and institutions run by the DSWD and non-government organizations who are still waiting for their chance to grow up in a family setting.
“We appeal to families to open their hearts and homes to these children, and bring a smile to their lonely faces,” Sec. Soliman added.
“A houseparent in a child care residential facility with 10 or more children cannot hug all of them at the same time. Only parents can do that,” the Secretary said, citing a study that a person needs 20 hugs a day to make him or her feel whole and stable. # Source – www.dswd.gov.ph
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