It’s a big problem, if the child has no family, no nothing, it is better to give them to the government

Participant observation and in-depth interviews/workshops with:

• Participant observation and in-depth interviews/workshops with:

• Teenagers and young adults experiencing unplanned pregnancy
• Mothers who had been caught for abandoning their children
• A range of community members in Soweto, Alexandra and Tembisa
• Police men & women who have encountered child abandonment
• Hospital nurses, social workers, doctors and pathologists
• Accredited adoption social workers
• Founders, managers, social workers and carers in baby homes and CYCCs
• Babies and children in institutional care
• Foster care mothers who also offer their services as a place of safety
• Adoptive mothers and fathers
• Adopted children both locally and internationally
• Young adults who recently discovered they were abandoned and adopted
• Child protection experts, consultants and lobbyists
• Clinical psychologists and psychiatrists
• Traditional Sangomas & Inyangas