A Helping Hand

On May 11, Mother’s Choice held its annual fundraising dinner at the JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong’s ballroom. It welcomed more than 400 guests for a night of celebrations, which featured auctions, performances—and messages of hope.

- KARMA CHENG

This year, the annual fundraising dinner’s theme was Black Tie and Floral— one that attendees fully embraced. Against a vibrant backdrop of fresh flowers, Troy Hickox, Lucia Tait Tolani and Purviz Shroff mingled with other guests.

Behind the floral decoration, Mother’s Choice’s most urgent mission rang loud and clear: the Hong Kong foster care system has reached full capacity, and there are still hundreds of children in need of a safe space to live. Speeches and emotional testimonies from foster families, which left not a dry eye in the room, revealed that the system now looks after 4,500 children in Hong Kong.

There are about 400 to 600 more children on a waiting list, who must wait an average of 31 months to get into the foster care system, while still living in unsafe environments or in hospitals.

The longer a child lives without a family, the more detrimental it can be to their development. On top of this, at least 5,400 girls and women between the ages of 15 and 24 in Hong Kong are faced with unplanned pregnancies every year.