SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT JOINS THE GLOBE IN CELEBRATING WORLD ADOPTION DAY

By Sello Tang

• The Department of Social Development has used World Adoption Day to encourage people to come forward to adopt vulnerable children who need forever families.
• Internationally, World Adoption Day focused on the importance and benefits of adoption to children who have been deprived of parental and family care.
• ⁠In South Africa, an average of 1 000 adoptions are registered annually, despite there being a crisis in the rising number of orphans and vulnerable children due to poverty, unemployment, HIV and Aids, and COVID-19.

The Department of Social Development used World Adoption Day to draw attention to the importance of adoption options in South Africa.

The department, led by the director for adoptions and international social services, Dr Tebogo Mabe, and Mpumalanga’s director for children and families programme, Zodwa Maseko, engaged with communities in Volksrust, Mpumalanga, on 11 November 2025, on the challenges around adoption.

Adoption is seen as a contentious issue in the country, Dr Mabe noted, adding that the department had since reviewed the Adoption Act to ease the adoption processes in a bid to encourage people to participate in the adoption of children.

He highlighted the importance of South Africans being involved and willing to adopt vulnerable and abandoned children, underscoring the alarming crises of abandoned children in the country and across the continent.

The Adoption Matters Amendment Act 56 of 1998 made amendments to the Child Care Act of 1983 (repealed in 2006) to simplify the procedure for granting legal representation for children in court, and to grant rights to natural fathers of children born out of wedlock, including the right to be notified and to adopt their children.

It made allowances for the process of registering a child’s birth to include the father’s particulars.

Dr Mabe said the latest observations on the Adoption Register showed a decline in the number of adoptions registered every year compared to the rising number of abandoned, abused, neglected, orphaned and other vulnerable children found to need permanent alternative care placement.

South Africa is currently faced with a crisis of an escalating number of orphans and vulnerable children due to poverty, unemployment, HIV and Aids, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Mabe noted.

The community engagement was one way of showcasing and promoting adoption services, as well as making the community aware of where to receive assistance if they wanted to adopt a child.

An average of 1 000 adoptions is registered annually.

In 2009, the department commissioned research on adoption aimed at identifying the reasons why people were not coming forward to adopt children.

The low numbers were attributed to a variety of factors, including cultural barriers which prevented people from adopting children, a lack of knowledge on adoption services among community members and stakeholders, and insufficient education or adoption awareness campaigns in communities, particularly in poor and rural areas.

Following the outcome of the research, the department developed the Adoption Policy Framework and Strategy to promote and popularise the national adoption services in communities across provinces.

Even though adoption is the best placement option for children in need of permanent families, it is not utilised fully, unlike other child care and protection services.

Most children are placed in foster care or in child and youth care centres. These short-term alternative care programmes are often overburdened and become unsustainable for the state.

The Adoptions and International Social Services Directorate is continuously promoting adoption services through various platforms, including community and stakeholders’ engagement, collaborating with the provinces.

November is World Adoption Month, a time celebrated by adoption service providers and stakeholders worldwide.

“The directorate, on behalf of the department, has collaborated with the province to commemorate the World Adoption Day (normally held on 9 November each year), to raise community awareness about adoption services and to encourage people to adopt the children in need of placement with families.”

This day seeks to focus on the importance and benefits of adoption to children who have been deprived of parental and family care, as well as those who are being informally cared for by family members.

Families that have grown through adoption are also celebrated.