Orphanages putting kids up for adoption

IT has come to the attention of the Department for Community Development that certain orphanages were putting children up for adoption without following proper legal processes.
Although the department is aware, it cannot do much as it does not have enough welfare officers and most importantly funding to monitor and take action on these orphanages.
The department has only seven qualified and gazetted welfare officers in which three carry out duties in NCD while the other four travel out to provinces if funding is available. 
“No child should be adopted unless it is done through proper processes,” Community Development Minister Dame Carol Kidu warned.
She said people must be very careful when putting children up for adoption.
“Some children have relatives and families who could look after them.
“We must strengthen the biological relations to maintain the child still,” she said.
Dame Carol expressed sympathy over her welfare officers who were qualified to do the job, however, were not able to, due to limited resources and funding.
“I just feel very sorry for them. The staff here a very good, qualified and genuine workers,” she added.
The minister was thankful that despite the little support from the government, partner agencies like Unicef have helped the department a lot in its work.
She told The National in an interview that they were now planning to set up provincial welfare offices to scale up services.
She said the department had also been working with NGOs and churches in providing training through workshops about its policies in order to help individuals, families or communities affected, including child welfare.