Roper to spotlight adoption

Through April 30, Roper Hospital will feature 20 portraits of foster children in its public corridor across from outpatient registration, part of the South Carolina Heart Gallery.

The Heart Gallery has helped secure permanent homes for foster children since it started as a volunteer effort in 2005. In July 2008, it became a collaborative program of the S.C. Department of Social Services and the Children's Foster Care Review Board.

In South Carolina, more than 1,600 foster children are waiting for adoption as a result of their biological families relinquishing or losing the right to care for them, often because of abuse and neglect. While some of those children will be adopted into their foster families, more than 900 are waiting for adoptive families to be identified for them. The children are ages 2-17, with most ages 8-14. Families who can take groups of siblings or older children are especially in demand.

Through the Heart Gallery, professional portraits of children waiting for adoption are shown in art exhibits across the state at libraries, churches, malls and other public venues, as well as on the S.C. Heart Gallery Web site, www.scheartgallery.org.

Millie Qualls, S.C. Heart Gallery program coordinator, brought the gallery to South Carolina five years ago after hearing about its success in New Mexico, where it originated. She credits her husband, who designed and maintains the gallery Web site, for nudging her to get involved. Now, the Heart Gal- lery has spread to more than 48 states.

From 2005 through the end of 2008, the S.C. Heart Gallery featured more than 334 children, 40 percent of whom were matched with adoptive families.

In 2008, the S.C. gallery showed its photographs at 52 venues, generating 380 inquiries. In 2009, the number of venues more than doubled to 125, and the number of inquiries rose to 1,447.

Likewise, a monthly average of 11,121 visitors to the Heart Gallery Web site can see photos of children eligible for adoption from across the state, organized by region.