Transcript Document

RESEARCH FINDINGS
CHILD ABANDONMENT IN SA
DEE BLACKIE
Introduction
“It’s a big problem, if the child has no family, no nothing, it is better to give
them to the government”, said Funani, in response to a question I had
asked her about adoption. Funani is around sixty years old and lives in
Alexandra Township, we were discussing the issue of unplanned
pregnancy and what options are available to a woman in this situation; we
had discussed abortion, parenting, and foster care, and had moved onto
the option of adoption.
I asked her to explain why the issue of no parents was such a problem,
she went on to say, “if you know the parents of the child, you can go back
and talk to them, if there is a problem”. I then asked, about a child that has
been abandoned, and has no parents, what should happen to this child?
She responded by saying, “the problem is you take it and help it, it’s not
family, it’s nothing about you, what if that child is naughty, who can you go
and talk to, to help you with it? It is a big problem”. She later came to me,
full of concern, and said, “I don’t know where you are going to get that
family for those children”.
The problem?
Over 3500 babies
abandoned in 2010
and most believe
this is increasing
(Child Welfare SA)
Child
Abandonment is
Increasing in
South Africa
Adoption is
Decreasing in
South Africa
Adoptions have
decreased by more
than 52% over the past
decade and foster care
has increased by 72%
•
Of the 18.5 million children in SA, 4.5 million live with neither parent.
•
Orphans have increased by more than 30% over the past decade.
•
150 000 children live in 79 000 child headed households.
•
Over 13 000 live in residential facilities and 10 000 on the street.
•
In 2013 there were over 11 million children registered for child support
grants and over half a million for foster care grants.
A Review of the Registry of Adoptable Children & Parents*
* November 2013
•
297 parents wanting to adopt (14 black parents, 190 white parents, 43
Indian parents, the rest are unspecified)
– Most are seeking a child of their own race.
– Girls are preferred where gender is specified
– 50 applicants would consider a child with special needs (HIV/Aids, physical
or mental disability etc.)
•
410 children available for adoption (398 black children, 3 white children,
9 ‘mixed race’ children, the rest are unspecified)
– Equal number of boys and girls.
– Over 60% were abandoned and less than 40% consented.
– 38 HIV Positive
– 22 born premature
– 53 with special needs challenges
Only 29 possible parents for the registered children.
Only 1699 adoptions took place in 2013 (2840 took place in 2004)
Child Abandonment and the Law
•
The management of abandoned children is governed by the Children’s
Act 38 or 2005, which was implemented in 2010.
•
Good piece of legislation, however, its implementation a challenge:
– Illegal immigrants are unable to legally place their children in the formal
child protection system in SA, and face deportation should they try.
– Relinquishing one's parental rights so that a child can be adopted, can only
be done without a legal guardian’s consent from the age of 18 years,
making this option inaccessible to teenage mothers (a child of any age can
request an abortion in SA sending mixed messages about adoption).
– Anonymous child abandonment has been criminalised, with mothers facing
a range of charges such as concealment of birth and attempted murder.
– Baby safes are considered illegal in terms of the Children's Act, however,
these are being opened up more frequently given the increase in
abandonment.
•
Child protection experts voiced concerns that the Act is being used as a
tool to prevent adoption rather than to facilitate it by both the Courts
and the Department of Social Development.
Many abandoned children unreported
•
Police officers ask people reporting an abandoned
child if they would like to keep the child.
•
Abandoned children being handed over to people
in the community who have lost a child, or who
have expressed a desire to take care of children
who have been abandoned.
•
Individuals are required to sign an affidavit,
attesting to the fact that they are taking care of the
child, however, no further formal legal processes
are undertaken.
Ad-hoc allocation of guardians to abandoned children is
contradictory to the rigorous screening and government
intervention that takes place during a formal adoption
“Anonymous abandonment
leaves children without any
real way of tracing family or
heritage” – Minister Bathabile
Dlamini (01/08/12)
Child Abandonment Globally
•
Mass child abandonment has been reported around the world and
across generations from as early as the 17th Century, usually
associated with mass urbanization and the related social issues of
broken extended family support systems, the vulnerability of young
single women, and the devastating impact of poverty.
•
17th & 18th Century Europe - first foundling homes and 'wheels‘
•
19th Century America - industrialization and migrant labour
•
1980's China - implementing of the strict one child policy.
•
Studies conducted in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s in Brazil, Jamaica
and Peru where a combination of poverty, war, gender inequality and
social suffering have led women to consider this 'survival strategy'.
– In these examples we see how 'child circulation' through informal fostering
and adoption becomes a means of managing abandoned children, similar to
South Africa.
Child Abandonment & Adoption in SA
•
Contemporary urban South Africa has all of the challenges identified as
causes of child abandonment in global studies on the subject:
– Restrictive legislation
– Poverty
– Mass urbanization
– High levels of violence (rape is a major concern)
– Extreme gender inequality
– High levels of HIV/AIDS (Which has also been gendered as a disease)
– Diminishing family support
•
Institutional & foster care systems are under pressure due to over-use.
•
Despite its proven success globally, government appear hesitant to
openly support adoption as a means to alleviate the crisis.
•
A review of African ancestral beliefs indicates that the ‘Western’
practice of adoption, where unrelated children are incorporated into
families in a form of ‘created kinship’ is problematic in SA.
‘Cultural Barriers’ are often cited as the reason for the
decline in adoption
“The ancestors will turn their
backs on you, and you will
have bad luck forever if you
leave the ANC” – President
Jacob Zuma (27/01/14)
“It would take years before there was a
flexibility of mind about adoption among
most South African’s. We would have to
have a big indaba before it could be
accepted. Ancestral spirits look after their
relatives and no-one else. In our religion,
in our culture, this think is ring-fenced” –
Jabulani Mphalala (Commissioner for
Traditional Leadership Disputes and
Crimes 24/02/14)
The process of Abandonment?
I followed all of the people
and the conflicts that I
encountered around child
abandonment to create a
mobile ethnography!
My fieldwork and methodology
•
Participant observation and in-depth interviews/workshops with:
–
Teenagers and young adults experiencing unplanned pregnancy
–
Mothers who had been caught for abandoning their children
–
A range of community members in Soweto, Alexandra and Tembisa
–
Police men & women who have encountered child abandonment
–
Hospital nurses, social workers, doctors and pathologists
–
Accredited adoption social workers
–
Founders, managers, social workers and carers in baby homes and CYCCs
–
Babies and children in institutional care
–
Foster care mothers who also offer their services as a place of safety
–
Adoptive mothers and fathers
–
Adopted children both locally and internationally
–
Young adults who recently discovered they were abandoned and adopted
–
Child protection experts, consultants and lobbyists
–
Clinical psychologists and psychiatrists
–
Traditional Sangomas & Inyangas
37 interviews, 12 workshops, 134 participants
My fieldwork and methodology cont.
•
In support of my interviews and participant observation I also
conducted a detailed discourse analysis of an archieve of newspaper
articles from the past 4 years – 2010 to 2013, rated to:
– Unplanned pregnancy (111 articles)
– Abortion (41 articles)
– Child abandonment (151 articles)
– Temporary safe care solutions e.g. foster care and CYCCs (137 articles)
– Adoption (99 articles)
•
I analysed 539 articles in total to identify the messages, communication
techniques and sources of information in each of these.
•
I used critical discourse theory to identify the dominant points of view
on each of these topics, and how certain vocabulary and
communication styles and images have been used to create a common
way of talking and thinking about unplanned pregnancy, abortion, child
abandonment, foster care and adoption.
What I explored
The portrayal of teenage
pregnancy, abortion, the
abandoning mother and
abandoned child by the
media
The management of
the abandoning
mother and the
abandoned child by
the police, medical
practitioners and
adoption social
workers
The understanding
and treatment of the
abandoning mother
and the abandoned
child by psychiatrists
and psychologist vs
traditional sangomas
The experience of child
abandonment from the
perspective of the
abandoning mother and the
abandoned child
Findings
The portrayal of teenage
pregnancy, abortion, the
abandoning mother and
abandoned child by the
media
The management of
the abandoning
mother and the
abandoned child by
the police, medical
practitioners and
adoption social
workers
The understanding
and treatment of the
abandoning mother
and the abandoned
child by psychiatrists
and psychologist vs
traditional sangomas
The experience of child
abandonment from the
perspective of the
abandoning mother and the
abandoned child
Sad, Bad, Mad Mothers
•
Young pregnant girls are increasingly individualised and demonised:
– Language used includes: Shocking; skyrocketing; crisis, out of control;
epidemic (medical term implying the widespread infectious disease).
– The girls are getting younger and younger, and more ‘innocent’.
•
Parents and particularly mothers are chastised for abdicating their
parental responsibilities.
“Virginity testing encourages abstinence before
marriage. This is the best way to protect them
[young girls] from HIV/AIDS and teenage
pregnancies, which are on the increase” said
Sibongile Mathebula [member of the
Imbabazane Cultural Organisation in Dube
Soweto]… “We check if the girls are virgins by
looking at their private parts. If the girl has had
sex, it is easy to see.” (The Star 24/10/2011).
The reasons given for this ‘epidemic’?
•
Sugar daddies & intergenerational sex
(highlight immorality of teen pregnancy)
– 20% of teen pregnancies a result of rape
– 60% of teen mothers claimed to have been
coerced into having sex by men who were
older than them (Mail & Guardian 03/02/2012)
•
Poverty
•
Rape
•
Drug & alcohol abuse
•
Proving one’s fertility
•
Grant dependency (disproved in research)
•
Peer pressure
Noted in
descending order
of frequency of
mentions in the
media
Usually listed in a rote fashion in the media
with little to no representation from the young
pregnant girls (less than 5% of articles)
Immorality and Illness
•
Abortion remains a contentious issue, with girls
who chose this option being labelled primarily
as immoral versus that of making informed and
responsible choices.
•
Illegal, backstreet, unsafe and botched
abortions are reported on frequently, often
resulting in the death of the young mother and
her unborn child.
•
Abandoning mothers are portrayed as immoral
criminals and murderers or suffering from
severe mental disorders.
•
Child abandonment is increasingly being
associated with postpartum depression and
post-traumatic stress.
Disposable & Disconnected Abandoned Children
•
No statistics are currently available from government, however, the
reporting of child abandonment gives us some indication of the typical
age of the children and places where they are found:
– 65% were new-born babies, and more than 90% were younger than a year.
– Of the more than 250 references to ‘sites of abandonment’, 70% would be
deemed unsafe for the child (noted in descending order of frequency):
1.
‘toilets, drains, sewers and gutters’ (20%)
2.
‘rubbish sites, dustbins and landfills’
3.
‘the park or open veld’
4.
‘baby safes’ (considered safe)
5.
‘hospitals’ (considered safe)
•
The remainder included: on the street; in a township; on a door step; with a
relative; with a stranger; in a river or dam; in a church or synagogue; buried; on
or near train tracks; in a taxi rank; at a school; and at a crèche.
– Only one article mentioned the abandonment of a child in the ‘suburbs’,
however, a number of articles claimed that mothers chose to travel to
informal township environments to abandon their children.
Visual and verbal imagery of disposability
•
Headlines: ‘Born to be dumped’,
‘Sewer baby’ & ‘Weggooi kinders’
•
Photographs of police and rescue
services removing baby’s bodies from
rubbish dumps.
•
‘Trashcankidz’ a range of commercial
toys that are supposed to give a voice
to the “millions of orphans, vulnerable
and street children of the world”.
•
Vulnerable, sick, exposed to infection
and HIV – often don’t survive.
– “Large part of undetermined deaths in
Gauteng for 0 to 4 yrs”
– Of the 200 abandoned babies found,
only 60 are found alive.
The taboo of adoption
•
There is much coverage of the declining rates in adoption in South
Africa, and the impact that long term institutional care has on
abandoned children.
•
Although the implementation of the new Children’s Act is partially
blamed, the most frequently cited challenge is that of the ‘cultural
barriers’ associated with adoption.
•
Cross race adoption is stated as being a contentious issue by the
media, with many adoptive parents sharing experiences of ‘judgement’
and ‘discrimination’ from social workers, the Department of Social
Development, and society at large.
•
International adoption is also treated with a great deal of mistrust. Most
of these concerns stem from a belief that the child will experience a
“loss of cultural roots” and that their welfare will not be a priority in the
receiving country (Pretoria News 09/12/2011).
Adoption and Ubuntu
•
The notion of ‘Ubuntu’ appears conflicted in reference to adoption in the
media.
•
It is cited repeatedly by both the National Adoption Coalition of South
Africa (NACSA) and the Department of Social Development in
newspaper articles, as a means to deal with the worsening crisis of
orphaned abandoned and vulnerable children.
•
However, it is also stated as a reason for black adoptive parents
rejecting adoption due to the child being of a different and unknown
blood-line.
“There were some who said adoption
was taboo in black culture. Questions were
asked about which tribe she came from.
I was told the ancestors wouldn’t know her
(Pretoria News 17/02/2012).
Adoption is not an option as it is
believed that the child is born spiritually linked
to rituals peculiar to that ancestry, and
a cross-pollination of rituals will anger the child’s
ancestors and cause all sorts of misfortunes for
the child, including sickness and disease
(The Times 20/01/2012).
Findings
The portrayal of teenage
pregnancy, abortion, the
abandoning mother and
abandoned child by the
media
The management
of the abandoning
mother and the
abandoned child
by the police,
medical staff and
adoption social
workers
The understanding
and treatment of the
abandoning mother
and the abandoned
child by psychiatrists
and psychologist vs
traditional sangomas
The experience of child
abandonment from the
perspective of the
abandoning mother and the
abandoned child
A clash of worlds and perspectives
Conservative
Focus on morality
of mothers
Predominantly
anti-adoption
•
Police Officers,
Public hospital
Nurses &
Social Workers
Adoption
Social
Workers
Western model of
childcare & protection
Moral imperative to
help children
Pro-adoption
Both have similar profiles of who abandons but differing perspectives
on who or what is to blame:
– Police officers and public hospital nurses and social workers see
abandoning mothers as immoral and irresponsible, and believe that they
should be punished by the law and their ancestors - they also believed that
they could be held accountable by their ancestors should they assist them!
– Adoption social workers see abandoning mothers as victims of poverty and
structural violence which has stripped them of their ability to love their child,
and that the choice to abandon is often a ‘survival strategy’.
Perspectives on who abandons?
– Women living in extreme poverty, and just surviving from one day to the next.
– Illegal immigrants with no support structures.
– Women with no family or support structures
– Women who have moved from one relationship to another and their new
boyfriend does not want to take care of the child from a previous relationship.
– Women who have HIV/AIDS.
– Women who have been raped by a family member (incest is often mentioned),
someone in their community or a stranger (multiple perpetrator rape in SA is the
highest in world).
– Women who have been abandoned by their boyfriends.
– Young teenagers who are still at school.
– Prostitutes.
– Alcoholics and drug addicts (usually living on the streets).
– Women living in rural areas in extreme poverty who travel to the city to abandon.
Unattached child
•
All of the social workers were very concerned about the impact of long
term institutional care for these children, as they believed that it could
lead to ‘attachment disorders’ such as behavioural and learning
challenges later on in life (Howe 2005):
– The child and their caregiver, develop a regulatory system together, through
the continuous responding to a child’s signals e.g when a child is hungry
and cries a caregiver would respond by feeding it.
– Through this process, the child learns to recognise itself and others as
persons, with thoughts and feelings, and this is the basis for empathy.
Romanian
Orphans
Othandweni
Granny
Programme
Findings
The portrayal of teenage
pregnancy, abortion, the
abandoning mother and
abandoned child by the
media
The management of
the abandoning
mother and the
abandoned child by
the police, medical
staff and adoption
social workers
The understanding
and treatment of the
abandoning mother
and the abandoned
child by psychiatrists
and psychologist vs
traditional sangomas
The experience of child
abandonment from the
perspective of the
abandoning mother and
the abandoned child
Isolated, Individualised and Disconnected
•
Women who choose to abandon their children are often in desperate
situations - many have been abandoned by the father of their child and
their families on discovery of pregnancy.
•
Pregnancy brings a rapid shift in their social status in their family and
their community - they move from someone who is loved and
cherished, to someone who is isolated and shunned.
•
Many of the young women spoke of their frustration at being labelled as
the sole perpetrators of their predicament by their community, their
family and their boyfriends/partners.
•
Most of the women were completely unprepared for pregnancy, no one
had told them about sex, conception, birth control or pregnancy.
•
Understanding of how conception takes place was often incorrect with
many believing that ‘you have to have sex many times to make a baby’.
Adoption as an option?
•
Adoption was viewed with great mistrust due to its permanence and its
disconnecting of the child from their ancestors.
•
Most of the young women felt that foster care was a better alternative
as this allowed a mother to retrieve her children later.
•
I was repeatedly told that a child must be introduced to its father’s
ancestors if it is to live a full and happy life:
– Thlabi (2013) notes that even if a girl has been raped, her family will try to
get the guilty party to acknowledge paternity once the child has been born.
– Especially in the case of a male child, only once their paternal lineage is
determined and appropriated do they have an identity.
– A woman who has not been introduced to her ancestors may still get
married, but she could suffer many still born children, as it is very bad luck.
•
Formally relinquishing one’s rights is seen as a ‘conscious act’ of
rejecting a child that has been given to you by your ancestors, who
could then exact a similar punishment for that of abortion (infertility).
Abandonment as an option
•
Most felt that a women who could not take care of her child would do
better to abandon them into someone else’s care, as the mother could
always apologise to the ancestors at a later stage, and claim that she
was not herself at the time.
•
Unlike adoption, abandonment is not necessarily seen as permanent:
“A women called me yesterday about two children that she abandoned nine
years ago at our baby home. She just told me, ‘I am well now and would like to
have my children’. I remember her from when she left her children with us.
She was young, on drugs, living on the street and HIV positive. She told me
that she has now found God and put her life back together, but she is not
sleeping at night. The fact that she left her children is tormenting her and she
is suffering. She literally arrived with the children and then disappeared, she
never formally consented. When I told her that her children had been adopted
and were now living overseas, she got very angry with me. She said ‘these are
my children and I am suffering’, but it seemed to be more about her than about
her children.”
Adoption social worker
Victims of fate
•
None could tell me why they had abandoned their children, but all
appeared extremely disconnected from their child at the time of the
abandonment, and believed themselves and their children to be at the
mercy of fate.
•
None saw themselves as perpetrators of child abandonment, but rather
as victims of their particular situation, making them feel disempowered,
angry and depressed.
“All I can say is that I don’t know. All I know is I just left him there.
Even if he comes back, he will know what I did to him, cos even myself
I can’t explain it. How do you tell a chid, you now my boy, I tried to kill
you before. The psychologist said maybe I was being hormonal, and it
was post natal depression. She didn’t give me any medicine for this,
we just talked about it.”
Abandoning mother
To be abandoned
•
The physical act of abandonment is a traumatic and alienating
experience for a child.
•
Most respondents believed that an abandoned child, who grows up in
an African family who believes in ancestor, will live a difficult life.
•
Beyond their sense of loss and rejection, they will be unable to connect
with their ancestors, as they have no knowledge of their father’s name
and through this, their family’s ancestors.
•
Not knowing ones ancestors prevents you from fulfilling many of your
traditional roles and rituals effectively:
– These include paying damages for a child, paying lebola, celebrating big
milestones such as matriculating, graduating or getting a new job.
– Ancestors are also important for guidance and support, for understanding
where illness may come from, and assisting a person in making important
life decisions.
Kumbule’khaya
The reason I am looking for my father is because I have some problems with
my health. I was sickly growing up. I have a problem with my eye. I have
problems with asthma as well… I just impregnated a woman back in
Vereeniging. I do not know what to do since I know nothing about our family
rituals. I also need to perform some family rituals for myself.
Kumbule’khaya Season 10 Episode 1
Not telling
•
Global best practice indicates that parents should advise their children of
their adoption as soon as possible, however, black adoptees are often not
told that they were adopted by their parents, as fear the stigma
associated with adoption.
Adoption is still taboo with us Africans. If you take someone else’s child, it’s not
my blood-life. If it is first born, it cannot be given inheritance. A child will want a
name and will cry for a name. A friend of mine discovered that her father was not
hers at his death. She wanted to give input into his funeral arrangements but the
family told her, ‘it is not up to you, he is not your father’. She was devastated, and
she told me that she hated her mother for not telling her. (Adoptive mother)
This young black couple are wanting to adopt. Neither of their families know that
they are wanting to do this. The couple believe that they are taking a risk with
their ancestors, but they are desperate for a child. They plan to pretend that the
child is theirs, and not to visit their family whilst they are supposedly pregnant.
They have agreed that when he has grown up, they will do some kind of ritual to
help him, but in the meantime, no one needs to know. (Social worker)
Findings
The portrayal of teenage
pregnancy, abortion, the
abandoning mother and
abandoned child by the
media
The understanding
& treatment of the
abandoning mother
& abandoned child
by psychiatrists and
psychologist vs
traditional
sangomas
The management of
the abandoning
mother and the
abandoned child by
the police, medical
staff and adoption
social workers
The experience of child
abandonment from the
perspective of the
abandoning mother and the
abandoned child
Abandonment and illness
•
Two models of illness:
– The social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists interpret the
abandoning mother’s suffering as depression and a mental breakdown
caused by the anger, rejection and abandonment by their family.
– Community members, the police, public hospital nurses and social workers,
and sangomas, however, interpreted the suffering as being caused by their
ancestors, who believed the adopted children displaced
•
Psychiatrists and psychologists advocate solving the problem through
the treatment and medication of the individual patient.
•
Sangomas believe that the solution lies in healing the collective family.
– Approximately 200 000 traditional healers practicing in South Africa in 1995,
compared to only 25 000 ‘modern doctors’ (Truter 2007:56).
– All research subjects had some knowledge of indigenous ancestral beliefs
and most had engaged in rituals that concern themselves, or their families,
and their ancestors.
Sangomas and adoption
•
None of the sangomas I spoke to were openly against formal adoption,
however, they all had concerns about the fact that the ancestors of the
child and the adoptive parents were unrelated.
•
This was seen as something that needed to be managed proactively,
consulting with one’s ancestors was seen as critical, letting them guide
you as a family was the only way to ensure their support of the process.
•
I was told that if the child was introduced to their new family’s ancestors
from the start, they would be able to assist the child in connecting with
his or her ancestors (ubigile – announcing a child to the ancestors).
•
In each instance, it appeared that consultation and honesty were the
only way to resolve issues with one’s ancestors.
•
Conversely, suffering would only be meted out in instances of
dishonesty and concealment.
Ancestors are alive when you remember them. Some people think that
it is just about slaughtering and feeding them blood, but it is not just
about this. The ancestors are not happy with so much blood at the
moment, they are looking into our fridges lately and seeing that we
have dead meat in them, it is too much. Child abandonment is
something about now, when you cut yourself off, and not only from
your family, but from your soul. Blood and family is important. When
we break the family, we break blood relatives, common lineage,
heritage. When you look at what’s going on now, we have lost Ubuntu,
it is just a brand, an idea, an abstract practice. You need to be
realistic, I can’t say I can help the individual child. The African people
need to understand what being African is about….
We can’t try to sort out the branches when the roots are a mess
(Sangoma Abusiwe).
How will we use this research?
Unplanned
Pregnancy Campaign
(Family vs Individual)
Community
Engagement
Programme
Conference
Finding a culturally
relevant approach
to adoption
THANK YOU