| The Child Welfare League Foundation is urging people to enthusiastically adopt abandoned children and take care of them, a foundation spokesman said Thursday. The spokesman made the remarks during a news conference at the Children's Recreation Center in Taipei. Some parents abandon their children because of financial problems, some because the children are suffering from serious diseases, and others because they are in prison and cannot look after their children, the spokesman said. Recent government statistics show that the number of local families willing to adopt children has dwindled over the past few years, the spokesman said. The country's sluggish economy is one of the main reasons behind the drop in the number of families willing to adopt children, according to the spokesman. To make matters worse, some families that have adopted children plan to give up the children because of financial woes, he said. The spokesman also called on the general public to donate money to help fund the foundation's child adoption program. "Philanthropic ambassador" Patty Tsai, wife of EasyCard Corp. Chairman Sean Lien, during the press conference urged the public to do more to help abandoned children by donating more funds to the child adoption program. Lien is the son of ruling Kuomintang Honorary Chairman Lien Chan. Founded in Taipei in 1991, the foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting child welfare. | 
