Why not spend the evening giving back to the community and come help look after our children in the Child Care Home?

With the kindness of our donors and volunteers, Mother’s Choice is able to provide support to our community which includes providing the necessary care to young pregnant girls and children without a home. Mother’s Choice is currently calling new volunteers to help assist at our Child Care Home between 5.00pm and 7.00pm.To be part of the change in our community and to join Mother’s Choice as a volunteer at our Child Care Home sign up here for one of our information sessions.

Not only are we looking forward to meeting you soon, but our children are too!

BoBo, a client of our Pregnant Girls Services

“When I was pregnant, I truly didn’t know if I had the support around me to care for a baby, so I thought adoption would be the best plan. But the moment she was born, I felt so much love, I didn’t think I could leave her. Mother’s Choice arranged for a Project Bridge family to care of my baby while I made my decision. I was nervous, but as I watched the Bridge Mom gently pick up my daughter, I knew she would be safe. Even so, my heart ached when she was carried away from me.

With support from my family, I realized I have what it takes to be a mother. I am so thankful to be living with our daughter now and am learning to be the best mom I can be. Our home is filled with so much joy as we raise my daughter together.”

Renata, Bridge Mom

“When we first met BoBo in the hospital, we could feel her pain. She desperately wanted to be a Mom, but she didn’t have the support she needed. My husband and I committed to caring for her baby in our own home so that BoBo and her family would have some time to get back on their feet.

During that time, BoBo came over regularly to learn how to take care of her baby, and I would always try to encourage her. One evening, after we put the baby to bed, she opened her arms, and we hugged and cried together for several minutes. We started as strangers who don’t speak the same language, but we will forever share a deep bond, because we love the same child.

This experience has made me so passionate about supporting young mothers – all we did was care for a baby for two months, but it gave this new family the time they needed to stay together. Saying goodbye to the baby was one of the hardest things we have ever done, but we will absolutely open our home again to do the same thing if it can help another child and their family.”

BoBo’s Mom, baby’s grandmother

“It is sad, painful, and heart wrenching to see your daughter face a crisis pregnancy. Some days, my heart was pounding so hard that I thought it was going to explode, but our social worker, was always there, even when I lost all hope. I don’t know how we could have walked through this journey without her support.

I am so thankful that Mother’s Choice connected us to a Bridge Family, who took such good care of my granddaughter. I want to thank everyone at Mother’s Choice from the bottom of my heart. Our granddaughter has brought such joy to our family, and we would not be so happy now without your help. My gratitude is beyond words.”

Connie, Social Worker

“For teenagers like BoBo, pregnancy brings overwhelming emotions of guilt, pain, and powerlessness. She desperately craved comfort and support from her family, and their loving commitment has transformed her life.

When BoBo’s parents made the decision to support her, I could see the change in them. They were sincere about bringing the baby home and establishing a full and loving support structure around her. They even decorated the baby’s room –they could finally be excited about welcoming the baby home.

Every new parent needs help and support, but teenage Moms like BoBo don’t often receive the love and forgiveness from their family that they need. When a parent steps into their daughter’s life in the midst of a storm, they lead them into a safe haven.”

The report, “About 60 vulnerable Hong Kong children remain in hospital as they lack a safe home” (December 22), highlights the huge need that we see daily at Mother’s Choice.

That this issue was discussed in the Legislative Council is testament to the many child welfare groups and charities which are actively working together to bring this critical problem to light.

It is unacceptable for a vulnerable child to remain stuck in a hospital or unsafe home because there is no place for them in the residential care system. However, merely increasing the number of places for children to live in residential care will not solve the underlying problem.

We must first ask ourselves why each of the 3,700 places are filled to capacity. There are so few places available because so many of the children who enter into the residential care system will remain stuck there for many years, most until adulthood, without ever returning to their birth families or being released for adoption. Greater effort must be made to get children out of this system, not just into the system.

Residential care should never be a permanent home for a child. We must make sure that each of the thousands of children currently living in residential care across Hong Kong is not left there indefinitely. Giving each child a safe, loving, and permanent family should always be our first priority, and most fundamental goal.

We cannot measure the success of our child welfare system by merely counting the number of places available for vulnerable children.

We must evaluate whether children are leaving residential care in a timely manner to join safe, loving, and permanent families. We must support families who are struggling to care for their children, and prevent the increasing abuse, neglect and abandonment of children in Hong Kong.

At Mother’s Choice, we are proud to be part of the solution providing more places for children who need a temporary home through our innovative and government-approved foster program – Project Bridge.

Our volunteer Bridge Families provide children with a safe and loving family environment, and we work hard to ensure that every child can either be reunited with their birth family or join an adoptive family as soon as possible.

When we work together as a community, we can change the life stories of the next generation of children in Hong Kong.

In October 2015, we received an urgent request about a father who was desperate. His family was in a state of crisis and they urgently needed someone to look after their baby girl, Grace*, for a few weeks. Working as a laborer and as the sole breadwinner for his family, he couldn’t afford to take any time off work. They did not have an extended family or network of friends to help during this challenging time. He was alone and desperate. He worried that if he didn’t find help soon, his daughter might be taken from him, and he would lose her forever. That’s when his social worker called Mother’s Choice.

Within an hour, we identified an approved volunteer family to temporarily care for Grace. The volunteer family quickly rallied their friends to supply baby clothes, formula, diapers, and even a cot! A few weeks later, the family’s situation had stabilized, and Grace was welcomed home with joy. Without the help of Mother’s Choice, Grace might have gone into the institutional care system, where it would have been difficult for her to re-join her family. Instead, she was loved and cared for by a volunteer family while her own family worked hard to provide a stable home for her to live in again. You were there for us, so that we could be there for Grace’s family during a time of crisis.

At Mother’s Choice, we build stronger families for children. We want to support others like Grace’s family who are committed, but may be struggling, to provide a loving, safe, and permanent home to their children. We believe that it takes a village to raise a child, and you, our village, gave us the support we needed to be there for so many like baby Grace and her family.

* Name has been changed to protect the identity of the child.

This year, you’ve helped us to…

• Care for over 160 children across our services and prepare them to join a permanent family. Though our cases are more complex than ever, we’re fighting hard for the children that we serve to be in a safe, loving, and permanent family as soon as possible.
• Train 24 new volunteer families for Project Bridge, a self-financed fostering program endorsed by the Social Welfare Department. Five children have already gone home to their forever families! We have been approved to move into the next phase of Project Bridge, which means we can help more children than ever.
• Hold our first-ever Mother’s Choice Flag Day in January 2016! Many of you (over 2,000 in total!) came out on the streets not only to raise much needed funds to support girls and babies in Hong Kong, but more importantly, to inspire our community to be a voice for children in adversity!
• Provide loving, non-judgmental support to over 800 young girls facing crisis pregnancy, and give greater support to each girl’s family so that her circle of support is stronger than ever.
• Mobilize more than 500 volunteers, who spent 62,500 hours loving and caring for our children at our Child Care Home. Volunteers make up 80% of our workforce, which means our babies have almost one-on-one loving care.