Eva Yvonne Chia-Ling Jonker turns 17 this month. She was taken to the Netherlands when she was eight-months old, not as an emigrant, but as an adoptee.
Sixteen years later, she and nine other Taiwan-born teenagers and their Dutch adoptive parents, have returned to Taiwan in a search for their cultural roots and to encourage more people in this country to consider adopting abandoned children.
"I knew from the beginning that I didn't come from my mother's belly. My parents used to tell me that I was brought by an airplane," Eva said.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
"My parents told me everything, so I don't have bad feelings [about being adopted]," she said.
Unlike countries such as the Netherlands, where parents face the adoption issue with a open mind, adoption is still viewed as a shameful secret in Taiwan. Many abandoned children are therefore placed with families overseas.
To encourage the public to pay more attention to issue of abandoned children and to support families that choose to adopt or even consider adopting, the Child Welfare League Foundation invited adoptees and their Dutch parents for a visit to promote adoptions.
The foundation has worked to match abandoned children with adoptive families for 14 years.
According to the foundation, there are approximately 5,000 children abandoned in Taiwan every year.
Only about 10 percent of these children are adopted.
Since Eva was sent to Netherlands in 1989, a total of 663 children followed in her footsteps to be adopted in the Netherlands over the past 15 years.
Wang Yu-ming (王育敏), executive director of the foundation, told a press conference yesterday that compared to Western countries, where many people choose to adopt because of religious beliefs or simply a desire for children, adoptive parents in Taiwan are usually those who have not been able to have their own children.
"Besides, the adoption system in countries such as the Netherlands is more mature, with complete governmental approval procedure and many adoption agencies to choose from," Wang said.
"In Taiwan, however, people tend to adopt in privately and the welfare system does not provide enough financial support to adoptive families," Wang said.
Maarten Johnker, Eva's father, said that it took him about two years to go to complete the paperwork process required by the government before finally meeting Eva at the airport.
"The moment she arrived, I knew that she was my baby and there was no hesitation," he told the Taipei Times.
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"Adoption is about fully and completely loving and accepting someone not born to you as your own child," she said.
The foundation takes care of about 30 abandoned children every month.
More information on the foundation's work and how to adopt children can be gained from the foundation's Web site at www.children.org.tw or by telephoning tits staff at 02-2748-6006, ext. 1.
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