Speaker 1: In the Pretoria area alone, about a hundred babies are abandoned every month. They're dumped in the veldt, in dustbins, or simply left at hospitals after birth. In most cases, the mothers are desperate people. Rather than abandoning her child, this woman went into a home, had her baby, and then gave it up for adoption. She already has a child, and is unemployed. Speaker 2: The decision was very, very hard. And at some point I wanted to keep my baby, the first day I saw her, I just wanted to be with her and raise her. But the situation didn't allow me, because I already have a son, which I can't maintain. So I feel if I gave her for adoption, she'd be able to have a father and a mother, which I don't have. Speaker 1: She wants her child to know it was adopted, so she's chosen a white family living in Europe. Speaker 2: I want my baby to go overseas because in overseas there's a lot of opportunities, it's not like here. And I want white parents because white parents, they're open to their children. They tell their children at any age about where they come from and everything. Speaker 1: Glenn and Christie [Fogle] have flown in from the United States to adopt a baby girl. Her birth mother left her outside a church in Hillbrow. They've called her Aeryn. Soon she'll be going to live with them in Kansas City. Christie: We look at her and think, okay here she is. She's South African, she's Xhosa and whatever. She has an Irish first name and a German last name and she's going to the United States and her mother speaks with a southern US accent, and she is mix, she is the world. Speaker 1: At home, they have two biological children and three other adopted children. Christie: I like the picture that it represents, and she's got Asian sisters and a blonde sister and a black sister. It's what we are. None of us are separate. Glenn: We celebrate the fact that she's adopted. We really didn't choose her, God chose her for us and put our family together. We don't wanna keep any secrets from her. She is adopted and I like the fact that you take one look at her and look at us, and you know that we're not her biological parents. But then you look at the way that she sits and cuddles into our shoulders and you can tell that she knows us as mommy and daddy. Speaker 1: Adoptions are facilitated by registered welfare agencies in both countries. The Fogles and baby Aeryn were matched by an agency in Pretoria run by the Apostolic Faith Mission Church. Children are received from hospitals, the police or social workers, and taken to a nursery. After a waiting period of 60 days, they're eligible for adoption. Heading the agency is Ricky Van Der [Berg]. The Fogles are the first Americans on her books. Ricky: We never met the Fogles before they came to South Africa. We received their home study and we received their profile, we see their family life. And it was a very special family, to see that they've already adopted various other children from other countries. And what we've learnt over the two, three that we're involved is that families that are really open to other cultures can more easily introduce a new culture to a child and make him feel welcome and belonging to that specific family. And also help that child to develop it's self identity. Speaker 1: Last year, her agency placed 60 South African children with families Europe. Because of abortion and infertility, there's a shortage of adoptable children in countries like Sweden and Denmark, and there's a surplus here. Those adopted by foreigners are usually children who can be placed locally. Ricky: This is one of our most difficult children to place. He had two club feet and he was in the nursery for a very long time before we could actually find a family who was prepared to adopt him. But he totally changed, when he came to us he barely spoke, he actually never smiled, he was withdrawn, he never played with the other children because he found it hard to walk and to run outside. But once the family was chosen, the family actually made him a little album of themselves, of the house, they have a picture of a aeroplane, saying he's coming to fly to his new home, showed his bedroom, showed the toys, showed the hospital where he possibly may have his legs corrected and his feet. And this child was introduced to this family through this booklet. And the day when the family actually came, he already had the picture of his new family in his mind. And when they took him to the door and he saw them standing there, he actually ran and saying, "Mommy, daddy," and he jumped into their arms. And that was the most beautiful sight to see. One child found a family and it changed his whole life. Speaker 1: Inter-country adoptions began in South Africa two years ago. A British couple, the Fitzpatricks, challenged a section of the Child Care Act, which prohibited foreigners from adopting South African born children. They had been living in Cape Town and caring for an HIV-positive abandoned child. They were to be transferred to the United States and wanted to take the child with them. The Constitutional Court upheld a High Court ruling declaring invalid section 84F of the Child Care Act. The court said in some cases it was in the best interests of the child to be adopted by non-South Africans. Since then, there have been 183 inter-country adoptions. There are even internet websites offering the services of social workers who will facilitate adoptions. Professor Tshepo [Mosikatsana] of Wits University School of Law disapproves. He says the court ruling has created a loophole in the law, which could lead to abuses. Tshepo: We are in a situation where, as far as I'm concerned, there is a legal vacuum and there are many people who will readily exploit this legal vacuum. There have been reports in the paper that child trafficking is already going on. Speaker 1: In April, newspapers reported that babies were South Africa's newest export and were being sold for thousands of rands. Ricky Van Der Berg says the article was misleading. She says inter-country adoption may be fairly big business, but that the money received is well spent. Ricky: Our books [inaudible] that show we made more than a million in our last book year, but everybody who knows how that works knows that we've got a house to run, knows that we've got running costs. Our cars does not work on faith, they also use petrol. Our social workers get a set salary per month, they not paid per adoption that goes through. And I can just say that we are totally transparent with all our books towards the government, they came after The Star's articles, they came and investigate and they found that everything was above board. Speaker 1: Adoptive parents, the Fogles, say inter-country adoption is expensive, but that they would never pay for anything other than costs. Christie: It's been important to us to be able to look our adopted children in the eye and tell them that we covered all the expenses we were allowed to, but no more. No money passed hands. In fact, we have pulled out of adoptions where birth parents wanted money besides what was considered equitable or reasonable. Speaker 1: In the United States, private adoption facilitators have been known to charge more for a white baby than a black one. Because there are no controls in South Africa, agencies can charge anything they like for placing a child with a family overseas. Sometimes it's US$3,000 per placement, sometimes it's 6,000. This agency's website says it charges up to US$15,000 for an international adoption. Tshepo: There's a constant concern that I have with private adoption agencies, because for the most part they work for profit as you may well understand. If we are going to go to the level where we treat people, particularly children, as commodities, it has severe moral implications and it really raises serious questions about the best interests of the child. Speaker 1: The owner of the website, Sherry [Shenka], says in the absence of South African legislation, her agency adheres to international law, and she says she's certainly isn't profiting from inter-country adoptions. Sherry: We work to make a living, I certainly don't see any social workers out there, or any adoption workers out there that are going to make profit from their adoption services. Social workers are not going to retire rich on their services. We offer a service and we charge a fee for our service, but our fees also include the preparation of baby for an adoption, which means there's medical fees involved, there's blood testing involved, there's care for the child before an adoption. If the child is not available for adoption, it doesn't mean we stop providing for that child or stop caring for that child. Speaker 1: Professor Mosikatsana isn't convinced. He's written a paper on the subject entitled Buyababy.com. Tshepo: Really the direction in which children are adopted follows the direction in which capital flows, it's usually from the poorer countries to the richer countries. And indeed, and one wonders if that is morally right, because clearly the exploitation with regard to economic resources moves in that direction, one wonders if clearly this is a added form of exploitation. Speaker 1: It's all very well to disapprove, say some social workers, while babies become toddlers in homes because South Africans won't adopt them. After a while in an institution, toddlers tend to call anyone mommy or daddy. Speaker 8: Mommy? Mommy? Daddy? Speaker 9: Mommy, Mommy, she's coming. Ricky: At the group homes where there's several care givers coming in and out, so that children actually never bond specifically to one person. They become attached to everybody that just comes in. And we saw that sometimes it takes longer for that child, if you place that child in family, for that child to bond with one mother and father. Our focus is to really look at the best interests of this child, and it's not its best interest to stay for three, four, five months waiting, and then in an inter-country adoption in any case because there just wasn't enough families in South Africa. Speaker 1: The Johannesburg Child Welfare Society disagrees, saying inter-country adoptions shouldn't be seen as a solution to the problem. Speaker 10: I think as an agency we are only too aware of the disadvantages of children's placements and adoption being delayed for lengthy periods, and the harmful effects of institutionalisation on children. But I think those disadvantages will be counteracted by the dangers of perhaps going into a very hasty inter-country adoption, where you actually, first of all the child is going to be subject to the risks of trans-racial adoption and being removed from their cultural origins. So I think you do have to be absolutely sure that that is the only option left to the child, and if there is a possibly family, even if it's a foster family within the country, I think that's an avenue we have to look at if it's going to be in the interests of the child. Speaker 1: The answer, it seems, lies in getting South Africans to open their hearts and homes. Tshepo: I think a definite effort should be made to integrate all communities in adoption. Speaker 1: Senekal, in the Free State, is a town where blacks and whites live largely separate lives. White people still tell racist jokes and revere symbols of the past. Louise [Vust] owns a florist and tearoom in the main street. Speaker 11: [Afrikaans]. Louise: [Afrikaans]. Speaker 1: She and her husband Jan moved here from Bloemfontein three years ago. They have two children of their own and a grandchild. They also have an adopted daughter, the apple of their eye. Lerato is four years old and has never known her biological parents. Her mother abandoned her shortly after birth. Louise: [Afrikaans]. Jan: [Afrikaans]. Speaker 1: This afternoon, Louise's shop is the venue for a birthday party. Louise: [Afrikaans]. Speaker 1: Lerato talks to everyone in Afrikaans. Although her heritage is Sotho, the only Sotho thing about her is her name, which means love. Louise: [Afrikaans]. Lerato: [Afrikaans]. Speaker 1: During the party, big sister [Jumi] arrives from boarding school in Bloemfontein. She says she took a bit of time getting used to Lerato. Jumi: [Afrikaans]. Lerato: [Afrikaans]. Speaker 1: Her parents say it doesn't matter that Lerato speaks only Afrikaans. Louise: [Afrikaans]. Tshepo: Clearly, white adoptive parents can raise a black child with love, there may be certain limitations and this is where the difficulty arises. Because of the separation that we've lived under for so many years, the respective communities do not know each other well. Most white people cannot speak African languages, most white people do not even know how to groom a black child, not for malicious reasons, it's just part of our history, it's part of the reality that we live under. And when you place a child with a white family, a loving family for the most part, you find it's a white, loving family. The difficulty is they do not live in isolation. They live within a context, they live within a community, they associate with people that they relate to, who are part of a broader community. And that child will be thrust in that environment where some, even family members, standard family members of their adoptive parents may not take kindly to the presence of the child. And my question is what impact would that rejection have on the child's psychology? Speaker 10: Look Lebo what I got. Look what I've got, you love my phone. Look Lebo. What's that? Speaker 1: Social workers say it is at least a better option than sending children to families overseas or keeping them in institutions. Speaker 10: A child in South Africa, I think, can never really be alienated totally from their roots and culture, because they are surrounded by people like themselves every day of their lives. Different for an overseas family, the child might be the only black child in the whole town. Speaker 1: Johannesburg Child Welfare says governments should be doing more to get the adoption message across. Speaker 10: Not enough is being done locally to recruit same race black families within the country. As agencies, we are often left to do this recruitment ourselves and we don't have the funding to go on a national campaign to spread awareness within the communities that there are children available for adoption. That adoption is an option to infertility, and we just really need to get that message across into the black communities. Speaker 1: Black adoptive parents that we approached declined an interview. They said they didn't want people to know that they'd adopted children. Although the trend is growing in black communities, proportionally far more whites than blacks are adopting black children. Last year, there were 300 cross-cultural adoptions, that's largely because there are so few white babies available for adoption. But some childless white South Africans do go as far as eastern Europe to find white babies. Speaker 10: It's a sad reality that babies are moving across borders rapidly and that you do have South African white couples going to Russia for babies, you have South African Indian couples going to India wanting to adopt from India. And you have white European, from Europe and North America wanting to adopt black babies from our country. It's a case of supply and demand. Elmarie: [Afrikaans]. Speaker 1: This South African couple is unable to have children and applied to adopt a white baby locally, but they changed their minds when they realised it was almost impossible. Elmarie: Yeah, we knew that it wouldn't be a white baby, because the waiting list was also quite long for a white baby. And after we discussed it with our parents, we decided to not even specify. We said we wanted a child and whatever child was gonna come along was gonna be the one that God wanted us to have. Speaker 17: Culture is something that's manmade. You're not born with a culture, you're born into a culture. And we adopted these children very close to birth, so they haven't even experienced a different culture, they've had our culture from birth. And where you've had a child that has a change of culture, that child's still better off than living on the street. Also, [Elmarie's] Afrikaans, I'm English, that alone brings up cultural differences, there are cultural differences there. We don't make an issue of that. Nobody minds that. Speaker 1: In Senekal, Jan and Louise Vust are hoping by the time their Lerato is a teenager, colour won't be an issue anymore. Jan: [Afrikaans]. Louise: [Afrikaans].