A decline in adoptions threatens SA children
Child Welfare SA estimates that more than 3 500 babies were abandoned in the country in 2010.
There are no current statistics detailing the number of children who are abandoned in South Africa on an annual basis, but most child protection organisations believe that the numbers have increased significantly over the past decade.
A new research study on child abandonment and adoption in South Africa was released by the National Adoption Coalition South Africa (NACSA), noting a decline in adoptions and an increase in child abandonment.
Dee Blackie, a consultant to the NACSA, undertook the year-long research project to provide NACSA with the understanding and insights needed to address the growing social crisis of child abandonment and declining adoption rates in South Africa.
Blackie’s fieldwork, conducted from March 2013 to February 2014, involved in-depth interviews and participant observation with young women experiencing unplanned pregnancy, women who had been apprehended for abandoning their children, community members, police officers, nurses and social workers, baby home managers and caregivers, adoption social workers, foster care and adoptive parents, psychologists and psychiatrists, legal experts, traditional healers and abandoned children.
In South Africa, there are 18.5-million children. Of these, 4.5-m live with neither of their parents.
The number of orphans has increased at an astonishing rate of 30 per cent over the decade, to approximately 5.2-m children.
During the same period, foster care grants have increased by over 70 per cent, while adoption has decreased by more than 50 per cent.
Further, an estimated 150 000 children live in child-headed households, more than 13 000 live in residential care facilities, and an estimated 10 000 live on the streets of South Africa.
In 2013, over 11 million children were registered for child support grants, and over half a million children for foster care grants.
Based on a review of the Registry of Adoptable Children and Parents (Racap), as at November 2013, there are 297 unmatched parents registered.
Fourteen of these parents are black, 190 white and 43 Indian, and the remainder are unspecified. Most prospective parents are seeking a child of their own race, and girls are preferred to boys where gender was specified. Fifty applicants would consider a child with special needs (HIV or with physical or mental disabilities).
There are 428 unmatched children available for adoption, with 398 black, three white, nine termed ”mixed race” children, and the remainder are unspecified. Sixty per cent of these children were abandoned, and less than 40 per cent formally consented for adoption by parents/family.
Of these children, 38 are HIV-positive, 22 were born prematurely and 53 have other special needs challenges.
This means there are only 29 possible parents for around 429 children registered on Racap.
Since 2004’s 2 840 adoption, it has declined to only 1 699 adoptions in 2013.
