As part of its advocacy campaign on Adoption and Foster Care services, the DSWD Field Office Eight recently conducted its fourth Adoption and Foster Care Forum for this year in Tacloban City. Said focal person on Adoption Alicia Advincula, the forum was necessary before one engages into adoption, as it serves as a venue for discussion on the policies and procedures of the services with prospective adoptive/foster couples, families, and individuals.

DSWD Assistant Regional Director Nestor Ramos, in his inspirational message, told the participants to take up the challenge of loving and caring their adopted children, who he said were unlucky to have been raised out of poverty and neglect by their biological parents.

Meanwhile, Advincula explained that the forum is, therefore, a means of preparing prospective adoptive and foster parents who are ready to adopt and foster a child. The activity also provided them opportunity to know how birth registration takes place, and the legal implications of adoption.

Advincula took on the topic, “Salient Features of Domestic and Inter – Country Adoption,” and Republic Act 9523 or the Act on the Issuance of Certification Declaring a Child Legally Available for Adoption; Social Welfare Officer II Leilani Jocano, Process Flow of Adoption; and Foster Care Service focal person, Reyschel Balase, on the “Salient Features of Foster Care Services and Process Flow.

City Local Civil Registrar, Judy Borja, discussed the importance of Local Civil Registration, while lawyer Edgar Octa, on the Legal Matters and Implications of Adoption. Private medical practitioner Mary Jane Balverde talked on the Development Milestone of a Child.

Continuous advocacy, specifically by way of fora, is being pursued yearly for the benefit of surrendered, orphaned, exploited, abused, and neglected children who are wanting of a permanent home. For the first half of this year, there are a total of 50 cases on adoption – ten are regular cases; 29, adoption of relatives; and 11, second placement cases.

The first forum conducted this year was also in Tacloban, followed by Baybay in Leyte, and Catbalogan and Calbayog Cities, all of Samar.