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Helping parents adopt orphans | Star

Posted on by L. Dreeye
Helping parents adopt orphans | Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Ten years ago, a mother visited an orphanage in hopes of adopting a child to keep her eight-year-old son company.

The woman was introduced to a four-year-old boy who had skin problems.

“When I first met him, I wasn’t sure if we wanted to bring him home,” said the woman, who finally adopted the child six months later.

“He had skin problems and was brought into a bad state.

“But when we were driving back from Kedah to Bukit Fraser, I was crying in the car and my husband was driving.

“I thought to myself, if not me, who would get this child out of the orphanage,” said the mother, whose identity is being withheld to protect the child.

Now in her 60s, she said she has no regrets about keeping the decent-looking 14-year-old. “Thanks to OrphanCare, they helped with the adoption of our son from an orphanage in Kedah,” she said. , adding that 12 other parents abandoned the child before she adopted him.

Her husband said that after adopting the boy, they soon discovered that he was a naughty child.

“He broke household items and valuables in the house.

“When we got him, he acted like he was in a new world. He looked shocked, as if he was not used to the new environment outside the shelter,” the housewife said.

Today he is learning a lot more, such as communicating in English and building a relationship with his stepbrother.

Another mother, who works as a doctor in a government hospital, shared a similar positive experience.

“A lot of my family members have adopted children, so they supported me and my husband in this,” said the 32-year-old woman.

She said both of their children were adopted.

Their daughter, now four years old, was adopted when she was just six months old.

Their son, now six months old, was also adopted through OrphanCare.

“When we first saw our daughter, we immediately became attached to her, although she seemed a little distant and awkward.

“After about two months (when she was eight), my daughter became very fond of us and started calling my husband “Daddy” and me “Mommy.”

The couple had a similar experience with the adoption of their second child.

OrphanCare Foundation chairman Tan Sri Faiza Mohd Tahir said there had been an increase in the number of babies placed into OrphanCare either anonymously at crèches or brought in by their mothers this year.

“To date, OrphanCare has saved 639 babies,” she said at a fundraiser at the hotel yesterday.

The event was also attended by Royal Patron of OrphanCare Foundation Jik Puan Besar Hajah Kalsom Abdullah and Minister of Communications Fahmi Fadzil.