More than 1,000 children have been abandoned in SA in the past two years because of poverty and inequality.
The department of social development noted that most abandonments occurred in the Western Cape.
In Johannesburg alone, at least 388 children are in need of foster care or placement in temporary safety homes, according to Johannesburg Child Welfare (JCW), a non-profit organisation looking after abandoned children.
Poverty and the rise in inequality are to blame for this phenomenon, said Lowina Fourie, a manager at JCW.
“There is not enough foster care and temporary safety [families]. We also have to screen these people to make sure they are not sex offenders. With foster care parenting, the screening can take six weeks or longer and temporary safety takes 10 days. But the screening can take long because some children do not have birth certificates and cannot be placed until then,” said Fourie.
Between December 2021 and March 2022, JCW counted 19 cases of child abandonment, a slight increase of seven cases from the same period in the previous year. These children, mainly babies and toddlers, are left at hospitals, on the street and velds, outside strangers' homes and even in dustbins or sewers.
Nationally, the Western Cape had 403 children being abandoned by their parents or guardians between 2019 and 2022 followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 269 cases, Free State (125), Eastern Cape (135), Gauteng (68), Limpopo (23), Mpumalanga (14) and Northern Cape (2).
JCW, a 113-year-old organisation, places abandoned or neglected children between the ages of 0-12 years old in two of their homes: Princess Alice Adoption Home, which can take 30 babies and Othandweni Family Care Centre, which accommodates 90 children.
“There are many different variables, but some parents say they cannot look after their children. Some of these children come here and have skin issues such as scabies and need medication,” said Fourie.
Sometimes space at JCW becomes a big factor.
“The problem is that there is not always space because children are not moving [to age-appropriate homes]. This means we have to place them at other places because there are children who overstay in places for years. For example, at Princess Alice a child might stay there for two more years even though they are too old to be there,” said Fourie.
She said foster parents are needed to allow children to grow up in a normal family environment.
“We want children to be placed in foster homes because they become too institutionalised [unable to understand how the normal world works] when they stay in homes [centres],” said Fourie.
Children are evaluated and grouped into those who can be put up for adoption and those who can be put in foster care. Untraceable children, mainly babies, are put up for adoption once they have the necessary paperwork such as birth certificates. Older children are placed in foster care.
JCW has a unit dedicated to recruiting people to become foster parents by going to communities and educating them about the process.
“We don't like putting babies with foster care parents because they get attached. We put babies up for adoption because it's permanent. On the other hand, if there is [known] family then we put them in foster care because we do not want them to be permanently separated from their family,” she said.
JCW has intake areas such as Eldorado Park, Westbury, Turffontein, South Hills and Rosettenville, Soweto and the Joburg CBD, which also includes surrounding suburbs.
In an effort to reunite some children with relatives, the organisation often places adverts in newspapers.
“We do have families that respond to the call outs. Sometimes it will be a granny or an uncle, but sometimes the grannies are too old and we have to work with that family. Sometimes a father comes forward and we do DNA tests. If it is found that he is the father then we give him the child,” she said.
Some of the women who give up their children are young university students who are unable to look after their babies.
“We have these students and their families don't even know that they were pregnant and had a baby. The job of the social worker is to help mediate between her and her family. Most of the time the family wants to keep the child,” said Fourie.
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