DSWD 7 matched 79 kids to adoptive parents in ‘11

Saturday, February 4, 2012

SOME 117 children in different child-caring agencies in Central Visayas are available for legal adoption.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has matched 79 of these children with adoptive parents last year.

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The matching of children and adoptive parents is done in Manila, said Sheba Dabon, officer-in-charge of the DSWD 7’s Reception and Study Center for Children.

A matching conference is organized by a committee composed of psychologists, doctors, social workers and representatives from DSWD and child-caring agencies.

Dabon, in a press conference yesterday, said the adoptive applicant’s preference and the needs of the child are considered during the matching.

But the child’s needs, she said, take precedence over the preference of the adoptive applicant.

The DSWD 7 and child-caring agencies in Central Visayas kicked off the observance of the 14th Adoption Consciousness Week yesterday.

Dabon said the public used to be wary about adoption, but “through our strengthened advocacies, the stigma on adoption has gone little by little.”

The process of adopting a child, she pointed out, has become easier with the passage of Republic Act 9523.

The law, which was passed in 2009, requires a DSWD certification declaring a child to be legally available for adoption.

“Many adoptions happening in Cebu are not legally done,” said Paul Healey, executive director of the Children’s Shelter of Cebu.

He said many people are still unaware of the adoption law, thus, the importance of information dissemination.