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Monday, March 6, 2017
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ILOILO City – The Panay Adoptive Parents Association (PAPA) urged Ilonggo couples to adopt children.
“We want more children. There is sheer joy in a big family. That is why we adopted a child. When our second son arrived in our home, our first born became more responsible,” said Mark and Reinalyn Cabag.
Mark is the president of PAPA. He issued the call following the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Region 6’s setting up of an Adoption Help Desk at a mall in Mandurriao district recently.
Every month of February, the Adoption Consciousness Week is being observed. This year’s theme was “Pagmamahal Palaganapin, Legal na Pag-aampon Ating Gawin.”
Cabag said Ilonggos — especially childless couples, those who want to have additional children, or even singles — should think of adopting children.
“We want to have a society free of abandoned children,” said Cabag.
What melted their hearts when they did adopt a child was the gradual disappearance of classic symptoms of an abandoned child, he revealed.
“Before, we did not even see him cry. Then we scheduled his feeding time. We realized that loving a child could melt the hardest of hearts,” he said.
Rod, another adoptive parent and a physician, said, “Try legal adoption. It will change your heart. It will soften your heart. You are going to have a heart of a giver.”
LEGAL ADOPTION
Adoption is defined as a socio-legal process of providing a permanent family to a child whose parents have voluntarily or involuntarily relinquished parental authority over him or her.
“We still have children in child-caring institutions and those in foster homes who need permanent families,” said DSWD social welfare officer Rosario Sanagustin.
HOW TO APPLY
Sanagustin said those who wanted to apply could go to the nearest Local Social Welfare and Development Office (LSWDO).
“Even singles could apply as long as there is a mother or father figure in their household,” she said.
DSWD-6 is also conducting a quarterly Adoption and Foster Care Forum wherein the process of adoption is being explained.
Sanagustin also warned young individuals who are into unwanted pregnancies.
“It is better to give up the child to us at DSWD rather than leave the babies somewhere else. We will find them permanent homes,” she said. (May Rago-Castillo, DSWD-6/PN)
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