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CNN World Report
White Families in South Africa Adopt Black Children in Increasing Numbers
Aired July 22, 2001 - 14:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's been said our families play a big role in the kind of people we'll become as adults. But what happens when you grow up in two families whose roots, race and culture are as different as night and day? In South Africa, more and more white families are raising black children. As South Africa's SABC reports, this trend is raising many questions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHIRLEY STEIN, VICTOR'S LEGAL GUARDIAN: I don't know who would want to take him, because anyone will be his mother, and she has abandoned him, and we have no clue where she is. But he's my child, he's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) about it.
PAULA STIER, SABC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): But it's unlikely to happen. 11-year-old Victor was abandoned and left to die when he was only a few months old. No one know what happened to his real mom. His grandmother brought him to live with her and her employer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said the child is sick, Shirley. Maybe the child could die. So, she said go fetch the child. And I went to him and brought him here, and I came up to Shirley, and Shirley said, "Hello my sweet pie." And he went like that to Shirley. That was that!
STIER: That was almost 10 years ago. Today, the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) has two moms, the lady who found him and who he spends weekends with, and Shirley.
VICTOR MANGWANE, ABANDONED CHILD: Sometimes it gets confusing, because when I'm at Jericho (ph), which is my homeland, I can't exactly answer the other kids. And sometimes I need to ask my mom what did they say. Because since I'm living here, I learned a lot of English and a lot of English teachers, English friends.
STIER: This, according to Lynette Schreuder of Child Welfare, is problematic.
LYNETTE SCHREUDER, SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL FOR CHILD WELFARE: Even in adoption work, where people adopt children from other cultures, we do encourage them to expose that child to the child's culture.
STEIN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), I mean, I insist that he goes home with her on holidays, so that he still knows where his home is and where he comes from.
STIER: Growing up in a white family hasn't made Sizie Moditte (ph) feel she has lost her roots. She has lived with the Heldenmuths since she was a baby. Her mom works for the family as a domestic.
SIZIE MODITTE, ADOPTED BY A WHITE FAMILY: I don't really feel that I missed out on my culture, because I think the way you live is your culture. And I feel that I was very lucky, because I had the best of both worlds.
STIER: The problem, though, is complicated, as an increasing number of families lay claim to children they haven't seen for years.
(on camera): The South African constitution says that every child has the right to a family, but in the case of private care, these rights are first and foremost with the biological parents and extended family.
(voice-over): Without the legal claim on these children, families are at risk of losing them at any time. But that doesn't phase Helen.
HELEN HELDENMUTH, SIZI'S LEGAL GUARDIAN: Children, if you give them the love and the understanding, you know that they are going to be with you. Whether they left the country or not, there is something that's part of them that will always be with you. I don't even think of it.
STIER: So, what is the right thing to do?
SCHREUDER: Why don't you then rather empower the person working for you by either information or paying them a higher salary, so that they have the power to care for their child in a better way.
HELDENMUTH: Well, you know, doesn't increase of salary in this country really help? There is no housing, there is no place to live, besides the fact that when the children came into my home and when I brought them up, and they had the two mothers, a black mother and a white mother, which was over 23 years ago.
STIER: While in fact it's wanting to do everything for them, that sometimes make it unclear as to what is in the child's best interests.
MODITTE: I have had the most amazing life so far, because I've gained so much knowledge from both of them, and it's been quite an experience.
STIER: Paula Stier, SABC, Johannesburg, for CNN WORLD REPORT.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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