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SCMP Reporter

THE girl abandoned at the Lunar New Year firework celebrations may be the subject of an appeal through the media for potential parents as part of a new plan to find families to adopt children.

  The Social Welfare Department is considering an appeal after failing to find a new family for Yu Fa - whose name means ''like a flower'' - more than six months after she was found crying in a pushchair on the footbridge between Exchange Square towers.

  Social Welfare Department principal information officer Roberta Chan said officials were anticipating some difficulty in placing Yu Fa, who is being cared for at Mother's Choice.

  The little girl has a long scar on her left leg and was initially identified as mildly mentally retarded, although Mother's Choice staff do not believe this is the case.

  ''We see the need to bring to the attention of the public the availability of children [such as Yu Fa],'' Mrs Chan said.

  But she said couples would not be able to specify that they wanted Yu Fa.

  ''The adoption process is not finding a child for a couple, but finding the most suitable couple to be the parents for this little girl,'' she said.

  Against Child Abuse director Priscilla Lui Tsang Sung-kai said she would not support an appeal that named a specific child.

  ''I don't think it gives a very good impression. It would probably be undesirable for the child in the long run,'' she said.

  However, Mother's Choice children's services director Craig Snow said he strongly supported the idea of appealing for Yu Fa.

  Mr Snow said ''extraordinary'' measures had to be taken for children with special needs.

  ''We've got to make people have contact with these kids,'' he said.

  ''It's a desperate plight. If no one comes forward, these children will never have a family life.''   Mr Snow said the leading country in adoptions of special needs children was the United States, because appeals on behalf of specific children were common.

  Mr Snow said Yu Fa's age was now estimated as four, not two as originally thought. Although she was making ''wonderful progress'', she was still not talking.

  Despite this, Mr Snow said he was convinced she was not mentally retarded.

  ''We believe this child has been mistreated,'' he said.

  Mr Snow said Mother's Choice staff were ''lavishing love on her so that she knows she is in a place that is secure''.

  Yu Fa could have some cerebral palsy, however, as the muscles of her hands are slightly constricted.

  According to Social Welfare Department figures, a total of 68 children are awaiting adoption.

  , of which 59 are defined as having special needs.



Abandoned girl may star in media appeal