Adoptive parents in Western Visayas (Region 6) are campaigning for legal adoption to provide every child a safe, nurturing, and permanent family.
Bringing an orphan under the legal care of a family takes away different traumas of the child and adds to the happiness of a family, Mark Cabag, an adoptive parent said on Saturday.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development Office (DSWD)-Field Office 6 has held a legal adoption advocacy drive with the Panay Adoptive and Foster Parents Association at the Hotel del Rio here.
This is in line with the celebration of the national Adoption Consciousness month with a theme “Pagmamahal Palaganapin, Legal na Pag-aampon Ating Gawin.”
Cabag said an adoptive family gives hope to an orphan.
“Based on science, there is an ‘orphan mindset’ or they have no idea of the future,” he said, adding that orphans deal with different issues and do not have a beautiful picture of the future.
“When an orphan was brought into our family, we saw that the child is healing from different traumas. You can see how a hopeless child slowly becoming hopeful,” he said.
Happiness in legal adoption is two-way, said Dr. Mary Elizabeth Torreon, another adoptive parent.
“It is not only one-way that the child only benefits from you because the child also gives you happiness. Life is different from a child,” Torreon said.
Based on the 2018 data of the DSWD Western Visayas, 349 children in the region are orphans, abandoned, or neglected and can be adopted or fostered.
Foster care is a temporary placement of the child that might last from three months to one year while adoption is the permanent placement of the child, Perla Haro, division chief of the DSWD 6’s Protective Services Division, said.
From 2017 to 2019, 101 children in the region were cleared by court and are now legally adopted.
Adoption takes a socio-legal process which requires court proceedings.
Although it will take some process, Haro said “what’s important is the value of life”, which adoption gives to both a child and future parents.
“The DSWD is not asking any single centavo from our adoptive parents but of course this is a socio-legal process. The adoptive parents need to find a lawyer to represent them in court,” she said.
Couples or individuals wanting to adopt or foster a child can approach the DSWD 6 office in Molo district.
Some of the documentary requirements for adoption and foster care include marriage contract if married, medical certification, police clearance, barangay clearance, proof of income, among others. (PNA)
