Hong Kong parents and would-be adopters reminded to put children’s needs first
Social Welfare Department’s Adoption Unit calls for more awareness and support for children waiting for stable families, especially those with special needs
“I don’t feel different from other kids at school. I am proud of being adopted. Because I got to choose [my parents],” Luke, 11, says while his six-year-old brother Ryan, the second adopted child of the Colbrans, clings to their parents and crawls all over their laps.
The Chinese boys may not look like their adoptive parents, but the bonds they have formed appear no less different from those of a biologically related family unit.
While Ryan roughhouses with his father, his mum displays two diaries filled with hand-written notes detailing the boys’ development, including a goodnight message by Luke left one evening on the couple’s bedroom door.
The Colbrans and their boys may seem like a match made in heaven. But not every child at the Social Welfare Department’s Adoption Unit is as lucky as Luke and Ryan, and the chances of integrating successfully into a new family have shrunk in recent years.
By the end of April, the unit had 72 children awaiting adoption, aged from under a year to more than 16 years old. The problem, though, does not concern numbers – about 160 households have applied – but centres on finding the right match, officer-in-charge Ronnie Tse Bik-san says.