Le NAC aux commandes / NAC at the controls

“In Mauritius, we practice adoption with the heart, in defiance of a more professional method. This observation made by the president of the National Adoption Council (NAC), Anita Bacha, depicts the current situation. Appointed president of this organization in 1988, Anita Bacha was recalled to this post shortly after the victory of the Social Alliance. “The government wanted, as soon as it took office, to put order in the adoption procedures in Mauritius. It is in this logic that the NAC has been appointed as the Central Authority in this area, ”explains Anita Bacha. A law, currently in preparation, aims to entrust the NAC with both adoption at the international level and at the local level. Working meetings, underlines Anita Bacha, bringing together the main partners, take place regularly. The objective: set up the organizational chart of the future structure and the staff training schedule. This entity, affirms the president of the NAC, will have the task of carrying out social inquiries on adoptive parents, a mission previously entrusted to the Probation Officers. “They complete their investigation in less than a week. This is due to the fact that they are not trained for this kind of work ”, deplores Anita Bacha. To avoid this, the staff of the new structure will benefit from appropriate training. He will also have to ensure the assessment and psychological follow-up of the children. Anita Bacha adds that priority will be given to local adoptive families. “There is a law in Mauritius which indeed stipulates that solutions must be sought locally for these children. But there is a vagueness because this law does not say who is supposed to seek these solutions ", highlights Anita Bacha, who intends to defuse this" confused "situation. For the month of April, the NAC received only two adoption requests from abroad. Since then, nothing.

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