Straight Talk presenter interviews Mother’s Choice Chief Executive Officer Sky Siu on TVB on Oct 8, 2024 (Provided to China Daily)
Mother’s Choice Chief Executive Officer Sky Siu is on the show this week.
Sky shares with us the work her organization has been doing in providing hope and a bright future for girls who must make the decision how their babies may grow up in Hong Kong.
Check out the full transcript of TVB’s Straight Talk host Dr Eugene Chan’s interview with Sky Siu here.
Here are a few highlights…
Chan: Right, Sky. The title of the show tonight is: “Do babies have a choice?” I’m sure the viewers would say “what an interesting question”, because when babies are born, they should be looked after by the parents, and the choices are made by their parents or their loved ones. So, why is this question related to the work of Mother’s Choice?
Siu: You know, actually, that’s a great question. Eugene, you know, when babies are born into a family, you know, of course, like you said, naturally, the parents, they have the responsibility to be able to take care of them and do what they need for them. But when babies don’t have a family, they actually have nobody. And that’s why organizations like Mother’s Choice really step in, to help them to see what they need, to stand up for them, to speak up for them as well. You know, Hong Kong is a signatory of the UN Convention of the Rights of Children. And as a city, we very much believe that every child has the right to love, to safety, to protection over violence, and, amongst many other things, family. And so for those of us at Mother’s Choice, we hope to be able to achieve this through our key services. We have children, we have youth, we have family, we have community services, and ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s really to ensure that the children, like you said, that babies have a choice.
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Chan: I also read that under your Mother’s Choice, you have a vision of every child in a loving family. That means, under different situations, you’d like the child to be in this direction, isn’t it?
Siu: Well, absolutely, you know, let me give you an example. Say, my family, I am married, I have two kids, you know, and we just recently had a second son. And it’s really great watching him grow and develop and adapt to our family. Children really need a family to thrive. And not just a family, but they actually need a permanent one, so that they have a feeling of safety. They have a feeling that they are actually being able to be taken care of, you know. And that’s actually one of the priorities for us, for us at Mother’s Choice, to be able to help children, to be able to get into those permanent families immediately, quicker. And why? Eugene, you might ask. It’s because the longer they stay in the care system, actually the more negative impact they’ll have in their lives in the future. And we don’t want that, because we want our next generation to thrive.
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Chan: At Straight Talk, we will go into deeper now. How can the viewers support your work? Is it financially that you need people? Or you need people to actually help talk to the girls? Or even foster family? Or even adoptive parents?
Siu: That is a good question, thank you so much for asking me about this. You know, right now, because of the number of children that are in the waiting system at the moment that need to be placed, we actually need a lot more foster families. Foster families is a volunteer thing, but actually the government has been very good to actually providing stipends and subsidies for families who are choosing to say “Hey, I am okay, and I can help to foster a kid as well.” And so, that is something that we very much need, viewers. If you are interested and would like to actually join us to become foster parents. That is one thing.
Chan: What will be the requirements to be a foster parent?
Siu: A willing heart, somebody who’s just willing to, at any given time, be able to take in a baby, a child, who is in desperate need of a home. That is all it really takes. And, of course, there are some procedural things, but at the end of the day, it’s somebody who has a willing heart, that is willing learn on how to love somebody who is coming from a very difficult background.
Chan: As you know, most families are having a double income, families that both the man and the wife will go out to work. Then is it all right if they have the domestic helper helping to look after the child?
Siu: Absolutely. You know, in fact, I think the more people in the community, in the family, to support the better. And this reminds me of an initiative that actually we do and actually I would love to invite people who are interested to also join us. We launched a program a couple of years ago called ‘Safe Families’, and the concept of it is wrapping around a young girl who has chosen to make a decision to become a parent, and while it’s very complicated and it’s very difficult, oftentimes they haven’t finished school or they may still need to be working, is how do we recruit willing members of the community to actually say, “Hey, I am willing to join and sign up with a couple of other people in my community, and we will be this girl’s and her baby’s family.”
Chan: Wow, that is very meaningful.
Siu: And by doing that actually, you know, it means that if they need babysitting support, if they need somebody to help, if they need a shoulder to cry on, if they need some resources, that it is not just one family or two families, but actually it is multiple families. This is actually a program that we are really proud of. And we just wrapped up our first pilot year of the program, and we saw that of all the people that we were able to help, none of the girls needed to put their child back into the residential care system. For us that’s a massive win.
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You may also watch the full TV interview here to learn more about our journey and the opportunity to take part in this impactful change. Thank you.
A willing heart, somebody who’s just willing to, at any given time, be able to take in a baby, a child, who is in desperate need of a home. That is all it really takes.