BY HARNOOR GILL
Grade 11 student
Christ The King Catholic Secondary
Georgetown, Ontario
THIS year for the first time ever in history, World Adoption Day is being observed on November 9. When I heard about this, I was proud to have a chance to become an ambassador. It was amazing to know that I have the opportunity to help start the first-ever worldwide celebration of adoption. As an ambassador, it’s my duty to help spread awareness about this day as the date approaches through any means possible. Therefore, I have taken the initiative to write this article dedicated to this event and to celebrate the importance of family.
I myself am part of a volunteer organization known as Halton Children’s Society that hosts a Purple Ribbon Campaign whose sole purpose is to raise awareness on the issue of child abuse and the importance of adoption amongst Canadian families. Since I am a part of this great volunteer organization, I can influence many people to participate on this day to post photos of themselves with their families and friends with hands-up smiley faces with the hashtag #WorldAdoptionDay.
It is in fact surprising that World Adoption Day is being celebrated for the first time ever, but it’s nice to see that it’s occurring in our generation at least. The importance of adoption is to provide every child on this Earth with either a parental figure or even a guardian that can help them make good decisions and teach them some of life’s little tricks. Adoption has become bigger than ever now which means there are more people out there in this world that believe in providing children with “parents” whether they have similar features or not.
A personal friend whose name I cannot disclose is a foster child who was taken under the wing of Halton Children’s Aid Society. He’s not any different from anyone at school and doesn’t feel ashamed about his background either. Knowing that he’s adopted doesn’t mean he’s a totally different person because he’s still the same person as he plays the same sports, video games and has the same fun as us. I feel really proud of him though because of how he will also be taking a picture with his family for World Adoption Day.
As the founder of the Peace Welcome Club, I also have the chance to raise awareness about World Adoption Day in that way as well. It’s amazing to see how much you can do with networking and it will also be amazing how much change we can create with the power of social media. My goal with this event is to create a ring of fire with change to get almost if not everyone like Peace Welcome Club to take less than two minutes of their day to post something about World Adoption Day on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
So let’s create change with one smiley face on a hand at a time! #WorldAdoptionDay
