SA 'exports' babies to other countries

'South Africans do not seem too keen to adopt across the colour line'

The department of social development is responsible for adoption between family members while organisations and independent agencies handle private adoptions.

According to the department, the first option is to place the child within his or her family, then the community of origin and heterosexual South African couples. If these fail, the child can then be placed in another country.

Department spokesperson Kgati Sathekge said South Africa joined the Hague Convention, which set the guiding principles for inter-country adoptions, in 2003. A regulatory body, the Central Authority, was established.

"We need a recruitment programme for local adoptive parents," he said.

There were 626 inter-country adoptions registered between 2002 and 2004. Since April last year, 2 539 adoptions were registered and of those only 466 were cross-cultural including local and overseas adoptions.

The registrar also handled inquiries from adopted people wanting to trace biological parents and parents who wanted to trace their children.

Pam Wilson, supervisor of Child Welfare's adoption department in Johannesburg, said 160 children would ultimately be available for adoption from their branch this year. Of these only 10 percent would be local inter-race adoptions. At least 80 are expected to be inter-country adoptions because there was more of a demand.

"We have (overseas agencies) with Finland, Belgium and Botswana. South Africans do not seem too keen to adopt across the colour line. Maybe they are not ready for it yet." She said there was no shortage of white families wanting to adopt. In recent years, a few black middle-class couples were also adopting children.

Wilson said couples or single people wanting to adopt had to go through a screening process which included an introduction to the process, full medical and psychological tests, a marriage assessment for married couples and same-sex couples who had been allowed to adopt since 2001.

The South African Association for Social Workers in private practice spokesperson Ronelle Sartor said they worked with overseas agencies which ensured that couples were thoroughly screened. It was difficult to find homes for HIV-positive babies, who were mostly placed in homes or with non-government organisations.

A private agency, K&S Adoptions, running the website Adoption South Africa said they had placed 26 children in overseas homes this year. The agency is run by social workers Sue Krawitz and Sheri Shenker, specialists in adoption and related services.

Krawitz said they had agencies in Austria, Germany and Denmark. But children were placed with couples overseas only as a last resort. She said their fee for local adoption work, and legal work generally, was R300 an hour.

This included direct screening, interviews, counselling, appointments with relevant professionals, court appearances and birth registration. She said there were also South African couples overseas who wanted to adopt which was done through agencies in Eastern Europe.