Unlike the South African government, she advocates allowing adoptions from her country as soon as possible, in the best interest of the child. “I don’t understand how the shutdown is a good thing. Investigate abuses and better monitor new adoptions. But a global shutdown destroys children’s rights and family life.”
last option
According to the Joustra Committee, abuses could arise and continue, among other things, because adoption has for too long been seen as saving children in need. But for the children who go to Dutch adoptive parents from South Africa, it is really the last and only option, says Wybrow. “It’s about children that we really couldn’t find a place for here.”
Many of the children who go abroad are either older or have had health problems or emotional damage. “We always look for a local solution first, but South Africans prefer to have a healthy child under one year old,” says Renata Malan, who works with Wybrow as a social worker.
Shudder
“If there is some form of trauma, such as a mother who was addicted or abused, or if it concerns a child who has been abandoned and thus nothing is known about, South Africans are often reluctant to adopt. want to know what the pregnancy was like. “
An hour’s drive from the small-scale shelter at the Campher family, is Goeie Hoop, a child and youth shelter. It is run by a Dutch couple. Ida Born prefers not to use the word children’s home anymore, because of its negative connotation.
Maximum capacity
Dozens of children between the ages of two and eighteen run across the large lawn, playing football and korfball. “We currently have 48 children and are at our maximum capacity,” says Ida Born. “There is a waiting list.”
At first Born and her husband thought of adopting from South Africa to the Netherlands. But precisely with the idea that children are better off in their own country, they changed their plans and settled in South Africa. “Yet I now see that there are really children who are left out. It would be nice if the option for foreign adoption continues. Every child has the right to parents and family.”
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