How many abandoned children do we have out there?

Too many. Because the Philippines remains a developing (translation: poor) country, countless parents are forced to abandon their kids, sometimes to the care of other relatives, other times to church or government agencies. At worst, they are left to fend for themselves and end up as street children.

A lucky few end up as being adopted, either by local couples who do not have children of their own, or by foreigners.

The numbers, however, are borderline depressing.

According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, from Jan to Nov. this year, only 457 cases of children were issued with certificate of a child legally available for adoption.

This rather long-winded name for a document says that the DSWD has officially made an abandoned child legally available for adoption.

Very recently, an advocacy communications campaign was launched to soften the stigma on adoption.

The DSWD, Inter-country Adoption Board, and ad agency McCann Philippines launched a couple of weeks ago a campaign on adoption entitled “Love Sees Beyond Differences.”

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman says there are so many children in orphanages and other child-caring agencies waiting to be adopted.

“But families hold back on adoption because of its stigma.”

There is something exceptionally sad about abandoned children. And I am proud of one fact – a member of my family is adopted. Not my immediate family, but a nephew.

I first saw him when he was a few weeks old. My favorite aunt who has three children of her own just decided to adopt the child one day.

That kid has grown up to be a strapping young man, an athlete no less. We have never looked at him as anything other than a full-fledged member of the family.

He’s a great kid, this nephew of mine. I call him nephew and not cousin because he was co-raised by one of my aunt’s three kids. Although my cousin – who’s about my age – has a kid of her own, she still treated her adoptive brother as a son.

I see him on family occasions and am happy that he’s grown up to be a terrific kid. No hang ups.

What would he have been like if our family had not adopted him and made him one of us? I hate to think about it.

So kudos to Secretary Soliman. She is one Social Welfare secretary that the country can be proud of.

I have to bring this up because as I have related previously, there was at least one DSWD head who brought shame to the government agency by using her power to intimidate my family. I won’t mention her name because she is best forgotten. Once in a while, however, she will mouth off her opinion on some issue of the day.

She’s not fit to shine Dinky Soliman’s shoes. She should just shut up because her time is long gone. She can no longer do any harm to innocent civilians.

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