Inter Press Service - October 14, 2005
Nicola Spurr

Yet, fewer than 3,000 children have been put up for adoption in 2005. When one considers that there are currently about 3.4 million* children under 18 in South Africa who have lost one or both parents, many to AIDS-related diseases, this makes for stark arithmetic. By 2015, statisticians predict there will be 4.6 million orphans in the country.

"People don't know about adoption and, although there are many potentially great parents, we need to create more awareness," admits Marike Bloem, of the national Department of Social Development.

At present, there are not enough adoptive parents in South Africa. "We have a problem placing children with parents locally," Bloem told IPS.

This may be an unfortunate consequence of an otherwise necessary provision in the social welfare system, which allocates grants to those who foster children. State assistance is not provided for children who are adopted, which encourages parents to foster, rather than adopt, say welfare authorities.

A few years ago, it was illegal to have foreign nationals step into the breach by adopting South African children.

However in 2000, this regulation was challenged in the Constitutional Court, the country's highest legal authority. A British couple who did not plan on remaining in South Africa permanently appealed to the court to legalise their adoption of a South African child.

The court ruled in the couple's favour, on the grounds that the constitution deemed the best interests of children to be paramount -- and that prohibiting the adoption of a South African child by foreign nationals was inconsistent with this provision.

As a result, existing adoption law was negated, and the door opened to inter-country adoptions. Over the past three years, about 250 children have been placed with foreign families annually, according to South African officials.

Revised legislation that takes account of the Constitutional Court's decision is still pending. However in 2003, South Africa acceded to the international Hague Convention governing inter-country adoptions, which sets out a framework for managing these adoptions to maintain the best interests of children -- and to prevent abductions or trafficking in children.

Each signatory nation is required to establish a central authority to regulate and manage international adoptions, and to set up bilateral agreements with other countries to make the process even more water-tight.

The central authority accredits non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other groups which arrange adoptions, ensuring they meet certain criteria. "They must also do local adoptions, they must be reputable and they must work with experienced social workers," says Bloem, who is assistant director at South Africa's central authority for adoptions.

"In addition, any money changing hands should go to the organisation, not individuals," Bloem adds; this is to prevent baby brokers from taking advantage of inter-country adoptions.

One of the NGOs involved in international adoptions, the Johannesburg Child Welfare Society, ensures that foreign parents looking to adopt are carefully screened and prepared in their home countries before coming to South Africa. Once here, they participate in various cultural activities, learning about the history and traditions of their adoptive children. After a child moves abroad, its new family is regularly visited by a social worker, and reports of the child's progress are sent back to South Africa for the first five years.

The majority of children put up for international adoption fit a certain profile, according to the Social Development Department.

They are between four and six months old, black and usually male. They were most likely abandoned by their mothers and have no traceable relatives. They must also be healthy in order to pass the scrutiny of health officials in their adoptive countries: most states refuse entry to children with chronic illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis or tuberculosis -- or with severe disabilities.

Clearly, there are racial issues to consider, as South African children put up for international adoption are typically black, and most adoptive parents are white.

Rebecca Ho-Foster is a Canadian citizen who, together with her husband of Chinese descent, has adopted a black South African boy and currently lives in Johannesburg.

"People stare at us and make comments quite freely," Ho-Foster told IPS. "We have black people saying that he must learn his own language to have his identity. And we have white people expressing their admiration towards us for taking in a black child, as if we were saints."

The Johannesburg Child Welfare Society is tracking the progress of children who have been placed with 35 Finnish families until they reach adulthood, to assess the effect of inter-country adoption on a child's development.

"We'll be interested to see how they turn out," says Pam Wilson, adoption supervisor at the society. "The Finns are very reserved and quiet, whereas the black community is more loud and spontaneous. We'll be interested to see if the kids have typically Finnish temperaments."

As far as inter-country adoptions in Africa are concerned, the society has a relationship with Botswana's government, and eight children have been adopted by Batswana families in the last two years.

The sentiment amongst people interviewed by IPS was that adoption was a last resort, after all possibilities of placing a child with their biological family had been explored -- and that black children should then be taken on by black, adoptive families.

"Our feeling is that children fare better in their own community," says Wilson.

But with AIDS and widespread poverty taking their toll on South Africa, international adoptions may provide the only hope of a better life for many children.

Speaking about her adoptive son, Ho-Foster comments, "A lot has happened to him in his life: his birth mother left him in hospital where he spent months waiting to be fostered. Then he spent time with a foster mother and now he's with us."

"It's a lot to take on, and he will need to process this as he gets older. All we can do is love him and provide a supportive place for him when he inevitably starts to question and understand all this."

* The figure of 3.4 million is according to the Centre for Actuarial Research at the University of Cape Town, located in the coastal city of Cape Town.

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