KAMPALA – Ms. Barbara Nankya Mutagubya – Executive Director, Sanyu Babies Home says that over 50,000 children in Uganda are currently living in 800 childcare institutions.
At Sanyu, she says they take care of 50 abandoned babies and children deprived of parental love from a few hours old after birth, up to four years old at a time.
According to her, over the year, they have enough an average of about 80 children coming to their home – whom they priotise reintegrating to their living family members.
“We go into the community to get involved in the social inquiries and if we find the known relatives, we are happy to work with them. Sometimes it’s the grandparents, the uncles, the Aunties, we work with a probation officer and eventually take back the child home to grow up within their own family.”
Where that is not possible, Nankya explained that they work with the prospective foster and adoptive families that have opened up their homes to give a chance to these children to have a loving family which is the biggest.
“Every year, about 30 of our children are placed in adoptive families, foster and adoptive families.”
She explains that the adoption law which is clearly stipulated in the Children’s Act amended in 2016 provides that you first have a child for one year now (fostering) during which you are under the monitoring and supervision and then after you go to court and you are granted an adoption order, which confers to you 100% parental rights over this child just like any of your biological children.
However, she says the process of adoption remains very long, tiresome and expensive which has discouraged many especially Ugandans to foster without completing adoption process.
“If children are not adopted, sadly, we will be compelled to transfer them to other childcare institutions,” she said on Thursday during the Adoption Awareness Conference Uganda 2024 presser.
She, however, commended Ugandans for now coming out to adopt children compared to the past days.
“In the past, many Ugandans thought adoption is for the internationals or for the very rich people. I’m glad to inform you that the trend has now changed. In 2010 2011 2012 we had many internationals coming in to adopt children until you (media) helped us create awareness and Ugandans started coming. Today, our waiting list is filled with Ugandans not internationals.”
Mr. Andrew Rugasira, Chair, Organising Committee said that adoption process is comprised of different costs in terms of legal representation, cost of time, among others which make it quite expensive.
“And the longer the case takes, the more times you have to be up and all that increases the cost.”
“We have had the acceptance of the head of the family division come into the conference, because they also are aware the cases are many….an opportunity to fast track if we could create a fast lane for adoption cases, that would help and encourage many people to adopt because some people give up by the wayside. They say this is taking too long,” he added.
Scheduled for March 7th, 2024, at Hotel African the Adoption Awareness Conference will feature discussions on various aspects of adoption, including the legal framework surrounding adoption in Uganda, support mechanisms available for adoptive families, testimonies from adoptive parents and ethical considerations in adoption processes.
