We believe that every girl deserves love and support, no matter her circumstances.  Mother’s Choice walk alongside young girls facing crisis pregnancy, because we know that there is no such thing as a hopeless case, and the biggest moments of crisis can become the biggest catalyst for change in our lives.

SPECIAL THANKS to the Barclays COVID-19 Relief Fund for making this video possible.

COVID-19 has had an impact on our Pregnant Girls Services, especially in the early part of 2020 where we saw a sharp increase in calls to our crisis hotline.  Conversely, it made it harder to introduce and bring girls into our hostel. We turned to technology to produce this video to give girls and their families a virtual tour of our facilities.

Our Pregnant Girls Services offers loving and non-judgmental support to pregnant teenagers.  Our goal is to empower each girl with comprehensive information on all the choices available to her (parenting, adoption, termination), and to equip her to face the future of her choice.  Our services include a crisis hotline, counselling, peer support, workshops and training, and residential hostel for girls needing a safe space to live during her pregnancy.  We work with each girl to develop an individual development plan, including (but not limited to) rehabilitation services, educational support, housing options, and a baby plan if she chooses self-parenting or adoption.

FAQs

If you know someone who needs our help?

Refer her to Mother’s Choice by calling 2313 5678 or texting through Whatsapp at 5633 5678.  Or email us at bigsister@motherschoice.org.  More details at https://www.motherschoice.org/en/get-help/

In April, we launched an Urgent Appeal to fill the very large hole in our fundraising created by COVID-19. In just over two months, more than 1,100 individuals, families, and companies rallied to this call, mobilized their own communities, and came up with creative ways to give generously even though many of them were struggling themselves.

Today, because of you, the Urgent Appeal campaign reached the HK$20 million mark, replacing the funds lost from the cancellation of our annual fundraising dinner. Your incredible generosity will allow Mother’s Choice to keep our doors open to those who need us most over the coming months and keep working towards our vision of “every child in a loving family”.

For more than three decades, Mother’s Choice has walked alongside clients in their moment of crisis, stepping into the darkest moment of someone’s story, and giving them hope.

When we embarked on this Urgent Appeal, we were filled with trepidation wondering how we would possibly fill the large hole left by COVID-19 and related restrictions.

Since then, we have been touched by the outpouring of support from donations of all sizes, from many different countries and from donors of all ages. We are so thankful for the many who walked with us during our time of crisis.

Our target is to raise HK$3.6 million before Father’s Day. This would completely cover our gap from the gala and help us keep serving our vulnerable clients for the rest of the year.

We are thankful for the many of you who have pledged their Hong Kong government HK$10,000 COVID-19 subsidy to Mother’s Choice. We ask that if you have not yet given that you consider making a pledge to help us serve the many children, youth and families who need us.

TO DONATE OR FOR MORE INFO, VISIT https://www.motherschoice-appeal.org, THANK YOU!

For over 30 years, Mother’s Choice has stepped into crisis in the lives of vulnerable children, youth, and at-risk families. Our vision is to see every child in a safe, loving, and permanent family, surrounded by a supportive community.  Whilst the current global pandemic brings uncertainty to all of us, we know that it is always the vulnerable in a community who become even more vulnerable in a crisis. Yet, we also believe that crisis can be a turning point in someone’s life, and an opportunity for the community to work together.

We can already see signs of the negative impact that Covid-19 is having on vulnerable children, here in Hong Kong, and across the world. These are triggered by school and playground closures, the pressure of home-learning and lack of routine, work and financial stress on parents, and the lack of support as families are separated during hospitalization and quarantine.

We also see some children who are isolated at home with abusive family members, disconnected from the safe adults who they might usually turn, to including teachers, medical professionals, and faith communities. With the world now connecting online, children are also exposed to more sexually explicit material due to the greater demand for child sexual images. Children may be victims of emotional abuse as a result of increased stress of parents, and are increasingly left alone as parents have little childcare support.

Child abuse can be physical, sexual, and emotional in nature, and exploiting and neglecting children is also a form of abuse. Identifying child abuse at the present time may be more challenging than usual – we may not see children to notice bruises or marks on their bodies, and in this time of great uncertainty, it is difficult to tell whether behavioural changes in children point to abuse or neglect.

Our goal at Mother’s Choice has always been to be a safe haven for vulnerable children without family and young girls in crisis who have nowhere else to turn. We have seen an 80% increase in calls to our crisis hotline in the past month, as well as increased demand for our residential child care and foster services. With the residential child care system already stretched to full capacity, it will become overwhelmed with more children requiring a safe, loving and temporary place to stay in the coming weeks. But we cannot do this alone. We need our community to be vigilant and to speak up when they recognize signs of child abuse so that we can keep children safe and support struggling families.

Here are the different ways that you can respond:

1. Call to report – If you have concerns that a child you know is being abused or neglected, report to the police or ambulance in an emergency, or the Social Welfare Department. [https://www.swd.gov.hk/storage/asset/section/224/en/FCPSU_Leaflet_Feb_2018_Chi_EN.pdf]
2. Get trained – If you are interested in learning more about how to identify, respond to, and report child protection concerns, for a limited period of time, Mother’s Choice is offering our one-hour online child protection training for free to non-staff and volunteers. Please contact info@motherschoice.org to get started.
3. Open your home – If you have love, space, and stability to offer a safe and temporary home to a child, we encourage you to sign up to our online Project Bridge Information Session to start the journey to find out more.
4. Donate – With financial challenges all around us, it takes even more courage to give. However, this season has shown us that helping the children, youth, and families we serve is more important than ever. Please consider donating during this time so we can make sure we can keep our doors open to those in crisis. [https://www.motherschoice.org/en/donate]

What else is Mother’s Choice doing?

1. We are Open! – Demand for our services is only growing, and Mother’s Choice is still running all essential services, including our 24-hour Child Care Home for babies and young children, Project Bridge and Foster Family services, Pregnant Girls Services hostel, crisis hotline, and counseling, and adoption support. We are still admitting infants, children, and young girls into our care, and have put strict health measures in place to ensure safety for our clients, staff and volunteers.
2. Child Protection Training – All our staff and volunteers have taken online child protection training over the past year to equip them to identify, respond to, and report abuse.
3. Supporting our Families – Children in our foster and adoptive families who have experienced previous trauma and challenges can find changes to routine and uncertainty very difficult, and we’re here to support our families to be safe and loving homes for children through the journey.
4. Keeping Children Safe – Through our membership and accreditation with Keeping Children Safe, we’re constantly ensuring our child protection policies are at global standards so we can ensure that children are kept safe in our care.

At Mother’s Choice, even as we step into the darkest moments of our clients’ lives, we believe there is hope. It takes courage to step out in faith to support the most vulnerable, and we could not do it without the commitment and support of our Mother’s Choice family of staff, volunteers, donors, and partners.

COVID-19 has had significant impact on our services and operations. We’ve had an 80% increase in calls to our emergency hotline, and there are hundreds of children on the waitlist for a safe and temporary place to stay as at-risk families in Hong Kong face even more hardship.  Despite these challenges, Mother’s Choice has remained committed to global best practice and protecting our vulnerable children. This includes:

• Being one of the few residential homes still admitting in children.
• Working closely with the Hospital Authority to provide resources for the surge of young girls seeking help with a crisis pregnancy.
• Sourcing and providing protective gear for hundreds of immune-suppressed children.
• Supporting struggling foster families with limited resources who are not able to support schooling.

Despite these urgent needs, we are unable to hold the Mother’s Choice gala dinner as planned in May due to the concerns around COVID-19. The gala dinner is our most important fundraising event of the year and covers 30% of our annual operating expenses.

Mother’s Choice is HOME to hundreds of vulnerable babies, children, and young girls throughout the year who need our help now more than ever. We do not want the postponement of this fundraising event to lead to a cut of critical services, which includes two residential care homes.

We need your help. Today, we ask you to consider making a financial gift. Every effort in this critical moment counts for the vulnerable children and girls in crisis that we serve.

PAYMENT METHODS

BANK TRANSFER:
Bank name:  The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited
Bank address:  1 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong
Account name:  Mother’s Choice Limited
Account number:  023-819725-001
Swift code:  HSBC HK HHH KH
Please email the pay-in slip to:  donate@motherschoice.org

CROSSED CHEQUE:
Please make cheque payable to: “Mother’s Choice Limited”

FOR U.S. TAX RECEIPTS:
1. To make a donation by credit card, please click here.
2. Or, make a cheque payable to: “Friends of Hong Kong Charities Inc.”
And mail cheque to:
Mother’s Choice, Community Connections, c/o Hazel Cheung
42B Kennedy Road, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong

CONTACT US:
Please contact us with any comments, questions, or suggestions you may have about our work:
Email: donate@motherschoice.org
Office:  +852 3915 5739

Mother’s Choice is a local charity serving the many children without families and pregnant teenagers in Hong Kong. We join hands with our community to give hope and change the life stories of vulnerable girls and babies. Our vision is to see every child in a loving family.

* Mother’s Choice has HK IRD s88 charitable status (1987). Donations over HK$100 are tax-deductible.