Hello, my name is Romy.

I have been working at Mother’s Choice for 8 years – the time has really flown by quickly. I’m now a House Mother of the Hostel for our Pregnant Girls Services. My job duty, simply put, is to live with the pregnant girls. Through actions and words, we guide them on how to take care of themselves, their health, their life, communicate with others, and to make a well-informed decision for their own, as well as navigate the ups and downs in life.

Working at Mother’s Choice, I realize I’m privileged to have a strong father figure as a role model, who shared a lot of life values with me. Many girls at our Hostel do not have a positive family figure, or even a family member to take care of them. Sometimes neither did their parents.

To them, our Hostel is a very important place. It’s their second home.

At the beginning of pregnancy, due to hormones, and no support from families and friends, they go through a lot emotionally and physically which is hard for them to handle. Here at our Hostel, we provide them with much-needed support. After all these years, it’s the first time they can go to sleep feeling safe. On average, these girls stay with us for 3 or 4 months. At the Hostel, it’s a time for them to recharge and re-organize their life, before they “re-enter” back into their lives.

When they come back to visit, we love to chat and catch-up. Some have even returned to do volunteer work for us. They share of the biggest moments of their life, and seek our advice and opinions.  Seeing them in a good place, I always feel so happy for them, because they have changed their life stories, with confidence and hope for a bright future!

“If I had not come to Mother’s Choice, I would probably still be playing around right now. I wouldn’t think about the future and would still behave like a lost teenager. Mother’s Choice feels like a friend, a family and a coach.” shared one of our girls.

Thank YOU for making miracles happen at Mother’s Choice.

This Christmas, become a miracle maker for Mother’s Choice.

Together, we #changelifestories – one girl at a time.

 All donations received in December will be dedicated to our Children Services.

To make a gift, please click HERE or go to www.motherschoice.org/en/donate/

My name is Hélène.

Growing up, I always loved a new challenge and adventure. Having studied engineering in France, I worked for many years in investment banking in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. But eight years ago, when I heard that Mother’s Choice really needed to upgrade their IT, I decided to leave that world behind and to volunteer my skills.

But boy was there a lot to do! They barely had any internet and their network was literally duct-taped together. And that is how I became their first-ever in-house IT staff.

Like many nonprofits, Mother’s Choice had spent very little on its infrastructure as these investments are often viewed as “administrative” costs. But in reality, the very things that make corporates strong, efficient and scalable are the same things that nonprofits also need… systems, processes and technology!

Eight years on, we have completely transformed our operations. We have a data-driven approach to addressing our client’s needs and measuring our impact and technology enables us to manage client data from anywhere, keeping us agile and efficient.

Today, I am the Chief Operating Officer for Mother’s Choice. I oversee our services as well as our operations. And for the last two years, I have also been a foster mother. All these past investments in building our capacity at Mother’s Choice all became very real – I still remember the first day when my family and I welcomed our very first little foster baby! What an amazing privilege to see our work come alive through the power of family!

Investing in our infrastructure and our people, has been a game changer for Mother’s Choice, and for the children, young girls and families whom we serve.

Thank YOU for making miracles happen at Mother’s Choice.

This Christmas, become a miracle maker for Mother’s Choice.

Together, we #changelifestories – one child at a time.

 All donations received in December will be dedicated to our Children Services.

To make a gift, please click HERE or go to www.motherschoice.org/en/donate/

“Equipping Pregnant Girls to Thrive: Understanding the Principles of Trauma Informed Care” online workshop was successfully held on last Thursday! Thank you all for your active participation and questions!

This online workshop is facilitated by Professor Hung Suet Lin Shirley, Head & Professor and Director of the Social Work Practice and Mental Health Centre of Department of Social Work, Hong Kong Baptist University. Today, there are an estimated 5,400 crisis pregnancies each year in Hong Kong. Emerging data indicates that there is strong association between childhood trauma and teenage pregnancy. A traumatic experience often results in violation of one’s sense of safety, which includes physical, emotional, psychological and relational safety. When we approach vulnerable pregnant girls to embrace them into relationship, it is important that we know how to assist the girls to re-establish a sense of safety and to support them to understand and express their feelings and memories related to trauma. In this interactive workshop, Professor Hung guided us through understanding the principles of trauma-informed care, learning trauma-informed care skills, and how to prevent re-traumatization.

We are so happy to learn and exchange opinions with more than 180 professionals in related fields through Zoom. We look forward to meeting you all in the next workshop!

This past year was one of unprecedented challenge at Mother’s Choice. With the unexpected outbreak of COVID-19, the already difficult conditions we face every day intensified, and the needs of the vulnerable babies and girls we serve increased.

Youth Service

• In the first months when COVID hit, calls to our hotline increased by 80% from the previous year
• Provided direct case management services to 102 girls, 16% more than the past year.
• Support to young parents was critical so pivoted to provide both online and in small groups, an increase of sessions by 27% from the past year
• With schools shut for most of the year, our team pivoted to deliver our Comprehensive Sexuality Education program online reaching 4303 students.

Foster Care Service

• We never closed our door or stopped admissions – instead we admitted 116% more children than the previous year.
• Seeing the increased need for foster families, we pivoted our trainings and info session to Zoom and were able to recruit 38 new foster families, a 36% increase on the previous year.
• We dispatched urgent protective gear and masks as well as home school support for all foster families.

Child Care Home

• We had to reduce volunteer child carers by 50% per shift to meet social distancing needs while caring for the same number of children.
• We had to keep our immune-suppressed children healthy and safe, but also give them as normal a life as possible.
• We created smile hour so that the children could see our faces through the glass at least 1 x per day.
• Unable to place children in group for therapy, we pivoted our way of work delivering  1,018 hours of individual therapy to children, a 225% increase on past year.

Adoption Service

• Despite travel around the world 3 families from overseas were able to travel to Hong Kong to bring their newly adopted children home.
• Working closely with social workers and caregivers to ensure COVID safe transition, we saw 22 children going home to their adoptive parents.
• In order to help children who were meeting their families for the first time, parents wore lanyards with photos of their happy faces and see-through masks so children could see their full faces.
• Despite all the challenges, our community stepped up for the children in need, we saw a 70% surge in adoption applications.
• Our teams worked tirelessly to approve all of these homes, a 160% increase on the previous year despite the team being split and working from home during part of the year.

This year, I invite you to make a financial gift to Mother’s Choice, to ensure that despite all of these challenges, we can give hope and change life stories for the next generation.

This is why our theme this year is Changing Life Stories as we believe we reach our full potential in authentic relationship. We are all created to be connected in a secure family, and family is the most powerful agent of change. Any amount makes a difference!

Please accept our heartfelt gratitude for your consistent and generous support!  You can donate here.

Join Hands With Us To Change Life Stories

Dear Friends and Family of Mother’s Choice,

This past year was one of unprecedented challenge at Mother’s Choice. With the unexpected outbreak of COVID-19, the already difficult conditions we face every day intensified, and the needs of the vulnerable babies and girls we serve increased.  Recent news headlines on child abuse barely scratch the surface on the very real struggles that our community has faced.

• This past year, we not only received an increase in calls to our crisis hotline, the profile of the girls we served were more complex and challenging, putting added pressure on our services.
• This past year, we experienced an increased need to recruit foster families for more children, while at the same time facing restrictions on volunteer support in our Child Care Home.
• This past year, Mother’s Choice worked hard to stay open 365 days to serve the vulnerable children, youth and families of Hong Kong who need our help more than ever before.

This year, from Mother’s Day on May 9th, to Father’s Day on June 20th, Mother’s Choice will hold its annual appeal to raise urgently needed funds to keep our doors open for another year. We hope to raise HK$30 million dollars over this six week period so that we can keep our babies loved and our girls safe.

This year, I invite you to make a financial gift to Mother’s Choice, to ensure that despite all of these challenges, we can give hope and change life stories for the next generation.  This is why our theme this year is Changing Life Stories as we believe we reach our full potential in authentic relationship. We are all created to be connected in a secure family, and family is the most powerful agent of change.  Any amount makes a difference!  You can donate here.

With heartfelt gratitude for your consistent and generous support,

Alia
CEO, Mother’s Choice

To watch the testimony of our amazing management team on how COVID-19 affected our clients and staff, please click here.