Useful Contacts in Tanzania:

The best source of information about adoption in Tanzania	Brooke Montgomery The Tanzania Adoption Society www.adoptiontanzania.org
Cradle of Love Baby Home, Arusha	Davona Church www.cradleoflove.com
A very useful website about orphanages	www.orphanage.org
An orphanage in Dar-es-Salaam	Boona Baana Center for Children's Rights www.boonabaana.org
Baobab Baby Home, Bagamoyo	Terry and Caito www.tzkids.org
Department of Social Welfare Dar es Salaam	Mr Donald Charwe or Ms Moyo Tel: +255 (0)222 184281 / 180180

Adoption in Tanzania:

Barnabas: Adopted at the age of 2 and a half, Tia: Adopted at the age of 7 months.

We (Amy and Ben Hathaway) have adopted two abandoned children from Tanzania ourselves. Both of our children are happy and bring such joy to our lives. Whilst we are NOT an adoption agency, we are able to offer advice to any families who are potentially interested in adopting children from Tanzania. Basically - the procedure is now easier than it was three years ago, but still an emotional roller-coaster and does differ between regions of Tanzania. There are now guidelines in every Social Welfare Department and adoption is becoming more common. That is not to say it is easy..... people make it difficult all along the way. But it's possible and we have been through the adoption process twice so know where the hurdles lie and can be there to advise!

		Who Can Adopt in Tanzania? You must be resident in Tanzania You (or one of you, if adopting as a married couple) must be 25 years of age or older You must be at least 21 years older than the child you wish to adopt
The Hathaway Family

How to Start the Adoption Process

1. Initial Contact with Social Welfare : Contact your District (or Regional) Social Welfare Officer in Tanzania and tell them of your intention to foster a child. The law says you must foster a child for 3 months before adopting them.
   
   You will need to have some paperwork from the Social Welfare Department in your home country saying that you would be suitable to adopt. Social Welfare in Tanzania require this and getting it once you are already in Tanzania can be time consuming, so if possible, try to start this process in your home country.
   
2. Application : You need to fill in an Application to Foster Form and submit it with the names of 3 referees you have known for at least 3 years. These can be family members or friends. These people will need to be interviewed so if you can get the process started in your home country it can be much faster.
   
3. Home Study : Make arrangements for the Social Worker to do a home study. This will involve interviews with you and a visit to your home.
   
4. Approval : Once all the paperwork is complete it will be sent to the Commissioner for Social Welfare in Dar es Salaam for approval.
   
5. Identifying a Child : Once the Social Welfare in Dar es Salaam agree to you becoming a foster parent you must choose a child to adopt. It sounds horrid and, this is where we went wrong. We didn't want to choose ourselves and asked Social Welfare to select a needy child for us. It took 5 months for them to do nothing and then write to say we must choose ourselves! The best thing is to visit some orphanages once you arrive and spend time with children (You are very welcome to come to Forever Angels) You can talk to the staff and find out about the children and get to know the children themselves.
   
   Advice - do not choose a child who has any family alive - even distant relatives. We made this mistake initially and our hearts were broken when relatives of the twins we "chose" (who had not visited in 2 years) came to take the children home once they found out we had applied to adopt them. You must only select children who are abandoned with no known family or you are asking for heartbreak. Social Welfare's goal (and Forever Angels) is to reunite children with their families and if you 'fall' for a child with a family - adopting them is very hard. The family basically have to go to court and plead guilty to child abandonment which no family will do as it is a criminal offence.
   
   If you get to know the directors of local orphanages they can advise you about any children who are available for adoption (no known family), which children are in need of a home, and any health issues you may need to consider. Many families who adopt get health checks for the child....especially for HIV. Many children are HIV positive and if you chose to test them before you decide to adopt - you need to be aware of the poor quality testing they do here and that the result may not be accurate?
   
6. Abandonment Certificate : Once you have selected a child, you must tell Social Welfare of your choice. They then need to get a police abandonment certificate for them (They will not do this until a child is 6 months old - so the chance of adopting a baby younger than this is very small). It can take a few months so this may be your biggest wait. At Forever Angels Baby Home we hope to already have these certificates in place for children with no family so any adoption process can be sped up.
   
   Once the police issue this certificate, Social Welfare should give you permission to foster. You then take the child home and I would advise you to regularly take the child to Social Welfare - because in 3 months time they need to write a report about your family and could well say they aren't able to as they haven't seen the child! Just pop in regularly and show all the Social Welfare officers how well you are all doing!
   
7. Application to Adopt : After 3 months you need to write an official request to adopt the child. If your Social Worker agrees, she will write a report and recommendation to the Commissioner. Once the Commissioner writes back with permission for you to adopt the child, you are advised to get a lawyer.
   
8. Court Order : You need to find a lawyer who can help you with your adoption petition. We have a good lawyer here in Mwanza, and know an excellent adoption lawyer in Dar es Salaam who have both completed a number of Tanzanian adoptions successfully.
   
   Once the petition to adopt is lodged - it takes about 3 months to get an adoption hearing in court.... (but they are generally postponed a few times). If all the paperwork is correct, the judge will most likely agree to the adoption.
   
9. Adoption Certificate and Passports : You Lawyer should also be able to help you to obtain an Adoption Certificate for your adopted child and passports.
   
   If you are non-Tanzanian, you should seek advice, prior to fostering a child, from your Embassy regarding citizenship and passport issues for an adopted child. At the very least, you will probably have to register the adoption in the Adoption Register of your home country.
   
10. Last but not least - Persevere - for every step forward expect two steps back, but the end of the journey is worth every frustration.
    

To be honest - the procedure is not too difficult.....but the paperwork and the slow pace of work makes it hard. You need to be constantly on the ball, reminding Social Workers to send letters, getting things typed for them and checking up every step of the way.

Our eldest child took 16 months to adopt from the day we applied to foster a child. Our daughter took just 7 months. I would say a year is realistic....but then you have to get passports and citizenship documents etc.

Costs : Our lawyer charged us $800 (US) for everything - court fees, paperwork, passports, etc... but I guess that could have increased a little now? You also need to budget for last minute dashes to Dar es Salaam when letters don't arrive or haven't been sent etc.

People expect bribes every step of the way. DO NOT give them! It's hard - but really, don't. It could backfire and be seen as a payment.

If you have any questions about trans-racial Adoptions or if you are interested in adopting a child from Tanzania, please feel free to e-mail me at : amy@foreverangels.org