A baby with HIV raises fears for many people. But is that right?

A baby with HIV raises fears for many people. But is that right?

Reluctant
Adoption organizations are hesitant about adopting children with HIV. While orphanages in South Africa, Haiti and Eastern Europe are full of HIV-positive children. And with the right medication it is now possible to live well with HIV, and you will no longer die from it.

Unique
The adopted children portrayed by NOVA - twins of which the boy, Mandlekosi, has HIV - is unique: Wereldkinderen  is the only Dutch adoption organization with a permit for South Africa and if the medical screening shows that the child is HIV-positive , it is not eligible for adoption.

Acceptable
According to Wereldkinderen, South Africa itself is against the adoption of children with HIV. But the director of the orphanage that NOVA visits disputes this. She first tries to find a family in South Africa for all the children in the orphanage. If that does not work, foreign adoption is certainly a possibility and also permitted. According to social worker Susan Krawitz - she runs an adoption agency - the biggest obstacle lies mainly in the countries of the adoptive parents. The World Children Foundation recently found it acceptable to ask parents if they wanted to adopt children with HIV.

Internet
Adoptive families for children with HIV from all over the world are also sought via internet sites. There are now various organizations in America that promote the adoption of a HIV-positive child. An estimated 150 children with HIV are adopted there every year.

NOVA spoke to two families in the Netherlands who dared to adopt a child with HIV and went to South Africa.