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This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the nature and characteristics of Kafalah and identify effective strategies to support Kafalah.
It covers the characteristics of Kafalah, its legal implications, what distinguishes Kafalah from other forms of family-based alternative care, and ongoing efforts to promote Kafalah in Eastern and Southern Africa. It concludes with implications for policy and practice.
This document has been produced as part of the regional learning platform on care in Eastern and Southern Africa. The platform and its corresponding…
This country care review includes the care-related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Committee's recommendations on the issues relevant to children's care are highlighted, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.
Domestic adoption is usually considered to be in the best interests of abandoned children. However, although ongoing efforts have been made to recruit prospective black adopters, adoption rates remain low. A grounded theory study was conducted to explore how black South Africans perceive and experience the adoption assessment process regarding the adoption of abandoned children. Findings indicated that social workers regard a rigorous assessment process as essential to ensure that adoption applicants are fit and proper to adopt, whereas prospective adopters deem the process unreasonable. The…
This chapter from the South African Child Gauge 2018 focuses on childcare and children’s caregivers in South Africa and aims to address the following questions:
- Who provides care for children?
- How does the state support or undermine care choices?
- Why and how should the state support caregivers?
Abstract
In South Africa, hundreds of black, abandoned children enter the legal child care system on an annual basis and become eligible for adoption. Although these children have a right to be raised in their country of origin, they are often made available for intercountry adoption owing to a lack of prospective domestic adopters. Statistically, middle-class black South Africans present as a significant source of domestic adopters, but the number of black South Africans legally adopting abandoned children is small. A qualitative enquiry, using grounded theory, was conducted to establish…
Introduction
This desk review is part of a wider study commissioned to SOS Children’s Villages International by the European Commission. The overall study aims to map the issue of alternative care and deinstitutionalization in countries in Asia, South and Central America, and Africa. It also seeks to increase the evidence on child protection, alternative care and deinstitutionalization and on how this can be addressed, in order to potentially inform future initiatives in these continents, at country or regional level.
The study comprises three continental desk reviews…
This video discusses the challenges social workers face in placing children for adoption in South Africa.
A document containing the policy for foster care and adoption in Lesotho.
This document contains the Procedures and Practice Guidelines for Foster Care and Adoption in Lesotho. It is complementary to the country’s Foster Care and Adoption Policy, a framework meant to facilitate the smooth and effective implementation of Part VIII of the 2011 Children’s Protection and Welfare Act bearing the title ”Fosterage and Adoption”. These Procedures and Practice Guidelines are intended to create a common platform and also to ensure the highest ethical standards are practised in delivering these two forms of alternative care.
Abstract
In South Africa, rates of adoption remain low while the number of fostered children continually rises. Little is known about the public perceptions, beliefs and experiences that inform decisions to either foster or adopt in South Africa. This qualitative research explored these issues among a national sample of childless adults, biological parents, kin and non-kin fostering parents and prospective and successful adopters. Fostering is driven predominantly by access to subsidies but is also informed by socio-cultural beliefs. Low adoption rates are influenced by an…