Social welfare officer Emma Patalinghug (center) answers queries on the process of legal adoption during the Kapihan sa PIA forum. (CONTRIBUTED)
The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD- 7) has lined up various activities in celebration of the Adoption Consciousness Month.
These activities that will be done in partnership with the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Health and the Department of Education include a motorcade on Feb. 15 at 1:30 p.m., mural painting contest on Feb. 19 at 9 a.m. at the Area Vocational Rehabilitation Center in barangay Labangon, Cebu City and the setting up of adoption help desks at SM City Cebu and SM Consolacion on Feb. 20-21.
This year’s celebration carries the theme “Legal na Ampon ako, anak na Totoo.”
Emma Patalinghug, head of the Protective Services Unit of the DSWD-7, said during the Kapihan sa PIA forum that adoption “is a responsibility of each one of us to give the adoptee a family.”
A pre-adoption counseling seminar is conducted every last Thursday of the month at the DSWD-7 office wherein the applicants can discuss their preference of the prospective adoptee, such as age and sex.
For the past three years, at least 50 applicants were able to adopt abandoned children.
According to Concepcion Solera, social welfare officer of DSWD-7, the number of willing applicants is increasing over the years.
Those willing to adopt must be of legal age, at least 16 years older than the adoptee, has the capacity to assume the rights and duties of parents, including sending the child to school, and of good moral character.