The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office VII (DSWD-7) conducts regional foster care and adoption matching conference today, February 28, 2017.

“We have a monthly regional matching conference with the Child Welfare Specialist Group (CWSG) in order to help us properly match the children to their prospective adoptive parents,” said Clavel Saycon, Social Welfare Officer IV and focal person on adoption.

Matching refers to the judicious pairing of a child with the prospective adoptive parents and family members based on the capacity and commitment of such adoptive parent to meet the individual needs of a particular child and the capacity of such child to benefit from the placement.

During the regional matching, the CWSG composed of lawyer, pediatrician, psychologist, registered social worker and non-government organization (NGO) representative will be tasked to deliberate the matching of children legally available for adoption and foster care.

“For foster care, we already have licensed foster parents and after the matching we placed the children under our foster care program ranging from 6 months to one year placement,” added Saycon.

“For adoption, we follow strict process because this is already permanent placement for the children,” Saycon underscored.

Prospective parents attend pre-adoption seminar and comply necessary documents before the regional matching occur.

Monthly pre-adoption counseling seminar is held every last Thursday of the month at the SWAD-Cebu located at MJ Cuenco Avenue corner Gen. Maxilom Avenue, Brgy. Carreta, Cebu City.

After the matching, the pre-placement of the child with the prospective adoptive parents will follow in preparation for the eventual placement.

When the placement is done, the prospective adoptive parents can now file the petition for adoption in court.

Once the court serves the certificate of finality or the adoption decree, the child can now have his or her amended birth certificate.

The prospective adoptive parents will spend for securing the documents and requirements for adoption but the services of DSWD for adoption is free.

For 2016, DSWD Field Office VII has already matched and placed 30 children under the foster care program.

For local adoption, the regional office has matched 24 children and 11 were already entrusted to their adoptive parents. ###

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