International Children’s Day | Good Shepherd Center aims to raise local awareness on adoption

Juliana Devoy (left)

Sister Juliana Devoy, director of the Good Shepherd Center in Macau, said during a press conference yesterday that she has gathered a group of concerned citizens committed to raising awareness on adoption and related topics.

“After the approval of the domestic violence law and in [an] interview to a Portuguese language media, I was asked about what would be my next project. At the time, I mentioned I wanted to work regarding adoption. To my joy, as soon as I started to look around for people that were interested in the topic, I was surprised that quite a few people consider this an issue that needs to be addressed in Macau now. I felt they were more open-minded than in the past,” Devoy said.

“There is a lot to be done in the overall area of adoption but at the moment we want to raise awareness. That’s our first goal to address this serious issue that needs attention from the community,” she continued.

Devoy added that the Good Shepherd Center will host a major event on November 11, the weekend immediately after World Adoption Day on November 9.

The event will feature sharing sessions with specialists from the fields of psychology, social work and law, as well as couples from both Macau and Hong Kong who decided to adopt.

The group will hold a roundtable session with the topic “The Importance for Every Child to Grow Up in a Family,” which will take place at the Rui Cunha Foundation.

She explained that there is still much to do regarding adoption in Macau and that “although the efforts from the government to improve the quality of institutions, no institution, no matter how good it is, is better than a family.”

The group said children should be raised by biological parents “when possible” but that “we must admit that in some cases, that isn’t the best solution for the child.”

“For babies to grow up in a babies’ home, no matter how good the home is, it is not good for their future development,” said Devoy, explaining the aim of giving these children a family, “either a permanent one or at least a foster home.”

They said it is a topic on which Macau has not made much progress.

“What we are addressing here is [what would be in] the best interest of the children,” Devoy said, explaining that the Good Shepherd Center has worked in this area since 1990. To date, the center has assisted 92 women who decided not to abort their unborn babies and sought help.

Devoy noted that 30 of those were underage mothers who, “even if they wanted and even with their own parents’ consent, couldn’t possibly deliver their babies for adoption until they are adults.” The situation could lead to many complications, she said.

According to the center’s director, there exists a problem of “culture and mindset” as many families are ashamed of these young unwed mothers, who consequently cannot bring these babies home to be raised by their own families.

“The process [of adoption] takes a long time and people calling to gather information get discouraged by the answers of people immediately saying there are no babies to adopt and they don’t know when [there] will be any,” said Devoy.

Instead, she advocates a more sensitive approach where people are invited to tell their story and why are they trying to adopt a child.

Another restriction under the current law states that those looking to adopt can only do so “from Macau or mainland China […] you can’t adopt from Hong Kong or from Taiwan nor is any other form of international adoption [allowed].”