Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) commends Mail and Guardian for raising an important issue such as adoption in a society in which very often people tend to have preconceived ideas about adoption.

The article for which MMA awards a GLAD[1] is titled, “Our aim was to give a child a home” (Mail and Guardian, 20/08/2021) and profiles a family who adopted a five-month-old girl in 2019. According to the story, parents- in-waiting, Ashley and Alethea took the decision to adopt a child through a professional adoption agency. The process took a few months before they were finally introduced to Madison, their new child who is now two years old.

Throughout the article, the journalist, Eunice Stoltz is making a huge effort to emphasise on a topic that is rarely talked about by the media in general. According to MMA’s 2020 report on media’s coverage of children,^[2] adoption as a topic is one of the less covered topics in the media as far as children are concerned. The report shows that in both 2019 and 2020, adoption stood at 0% of the covered topics, making it a non-existent topic in the South African media.

The Mail and Guardian also made efforts to access experts who were able to provide context, further highlighting on different aspects which have impact on the process of adoption in South Africa.  One of the people quoted in the article is Katinka Pieterse, the Director of Abba Specialist Adoption & Social Services who says, “A study was done by the HSRC [Human Science Research Council] in 2010. They looked at the perception and beliefs of South Africans when it comes to legal adoption. And that study actually showed that people are quite negative about adoptions and there are certain impediments when it comes to adoption and the way that adoption is viewed in South Africa.”

MMA congratulates the Mail and Guardian for taking seriously, its role to educate citizens and create awareness around societal issues. We encourage the publication to continue highlighting such issues asdoing so will help the fight against stigma and discrimination around adoption.

Written by Jacques Ndong

Edited by Lister Namumba

[1]GLADs are awarded to media for reporting on children responsibly

[2] https://mediamonitoringafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020childrensreport.pdf