Developing a culturally relevant adoption model in South Africa: The way forward

Abstract

Despite the efforts made in South Africa to develop an adoption model relevant to local conditions, national adoption rates are low. In order to ensure that children eligible for adoption are not unnecessarily uprooted from their ethnic, religious and cultural origins, efforts made to indigenize the adoption model require further attention. Adoption policy and practice has to be culturally sensitive, that is, based on patterns and processes of family formation of the majority population group, namely black African citizens, to be successful.