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.