Every child is everyone’s child

Sarudzai Mupangi Features Writer
Africans have always adopted children since the beginning of history but it was usually done within the family circles where no legal documentation was required.
If a man passed on his siblings would share the responsibility of taking care of the children and, resultantly, no child was left to suffer on their own outside the family.

It was taboo then to have child-headed families. However, with the changing of times and abandonment of African tradition, coupled with teething economic challenges some children now fend for themselves.

The burden of caring for such children has been shifted from the family to the State. Therefore, the process of adopting children had to be legalised for the protection of such minors.

Adoption now involves complete strangers who are prepared to assimilate children into their homes even if they do not share the same totem.

In Zimbabwe the process has been made fairly easy and takes about three to six months to complete before one gets to live with their new child.

This was done to make sure that as many children as possible get the opportunity to grow up in a family unit.
Government is now engaging communities to share the burden that has since been weighing heavily on it by encouraging people to adopt children.

The process has been made easy to encouraging prospective parents to adopt. It has even gone further to put on hold the registration of new children’s homes so that it can deal with those that are currently in existence.

A prospective couple or individual can start by identifying the child whom they want to take care of whether they are in a children’s home or anywhere in the community or they can go through the process then choose the child later.

Most couples prefer children who have almost the same complexion and physical appearances as either of them. This is done to make sure that they bond and blend in with the new family. Bonding is easier when people adopt children in their infancy.

One of the main reasons why people adopt children is because they may have fertility problems or some single people may simply want to experience parenthood without having to get married.

Others have health conditions that put them at risk if they fall pregnant.
In Zimbabwe whether one is single or married they have the right to adopt a child for as long as they have a decent home to offer the child.
There is also an option to foster a maximum of three children at a given time.

Given such a scenario it does not make any sense to worry about how one can have children when there is a legal means to do so. Some women have also been found breaking the law after stealing babies in order to protect their marriages.

This has probably happened because women do not want their husbands or the extended family members to know that she is unable to conceive. The commission of the crime has also been made easier by the fact that some men only get to see their wives once or twice a year creating room for deception

However, the first step to getting a baby through adoption in Zimbabwe is registering with the civil court. One has to make an application to the court stating their intentions.

The application is supposed to be written by a lawyer if one does not have any they could go to Justice for Children for assistance.
After handing in the application the Department of Social Welfare sends in a probation officer to the home of the applicants to assess the intended home for the child.

If the officer’s findings are positive a court date is set so that the rest of the process can begin. This is supposed to take place within two weeks of application.

The court opens a file for the adoption. The applicants are supposed to fill in an application form together with their referees.
The people intending to adopt a child are expected to bring in vetted fingerprints, national identification cards, birth certificates, marriage certificates if they are a couple and a payslip which is required at a later stage though. If the couple has a customary marriage they have to fill in an affidavit form stating when they were married.

Police clearance is also required to make sure that the people in need of the child have never committed any crimes against minors.
The process involves three ministries, namely Home Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs as well as the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare.

The court will then alert the Social Welfare Department of the court application then an officer is introduced to the people intending to adopt.

By the end of the process the child would be in possession of a birth certificate with the surname of the new parents in order to qualify him or her for the inheritance of the parents even if they had other biological children, they are legally considered equal.

Locally based parents can have their child sooner unlike those undergoing the process from outside the country.
However, if the new parents stay with the child and realise for some reason that they cannot have him or her permanently they can send the child back to the home within the first six months after which they can not do so.

According to officers at the Child Protection Society in Harare and those at the Social Welfare Department, Government is encouraging more people to either adopt or foster children living in local homes.

“If there are any people you may know of that are interested in adopting or fostering children please let them know,” said one officer only identified as Munemo at the Child Protection Society

“It is being encouraged of all Zimbabweans by Government to take responsibility by adopting a child or two it would make a difference in the children’s  lives.

“This year Government suspended the issuing of licences to new players intending to set up homes. It was done to make sure that the general populace plays an active role in giving children homes.”

At the social services office at Makombe Building, the officer said more and more people were resorting to adopting children.
“These days we are getting more and more of these people visiting our department and I think it is the right thing to do,” she said.
“What we try and avoid is to give children away and then they end up in worse situations than they were before.

“So far all the people who have applied for adoption have been found fit to be parents, and you do not have to be an owner of a big house in the low-density suburbs to get a child.

“What is important is a good environment and a peaceful marriage, if the people are married.
The Harare Civil Court said they were receiving at least two applications each week.
There is no need for HIV tests.

While it is a noble thing to do, adopting a stranger has not been a part of local culture and maybe considered Western. According to African culture men are never sterile and adoption is considered an admission of inability to sire children.

In the old days if family elders realise that their son has not been able to impregnate his wife they would be given a close relative’s child to take care of or organise that the younger brother or cousin secretly have sex with the wife and continue the family line.

Men who give in to the need to adopt are sometimes prone to all sorts of attacks from society.
Some couples may also be accused of selfishness for adopting a stranger rather than taking care of poor relatives instead.

Traditionalist and social worker Sekuru Simon Mazorodze said it is not within African culture for a couple to go out and look for a child to adopt but one can identify a child who is struggling and take care of them without changing their surname. They do not take them in.
“If a woman is to remarry she can bring her children from the former union and they can change their surnames to use that of the stepfather,” said Sekuru Mazorodze.

“In desperate situations where a couple is failing to conceive, relatives give them a child or two to raise.”
He, however, noted that while a stranger can be taken care of especially in desperate situations it would cause problems for the good Samaritan if the ancestors of the child want him or her to be reunited with their real families.

There are over 70 children’s homes in Zimbabwe, the most popular ones being First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe’s Mazowe Children’s Home, there is also Chinyaradzo Children’s Home, Precious Child in Bindura among many others.

CPS together with local homes have successfully made efforts to unite some of the children in the homes with their families.

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