Founded in 2009 by Debbie Wybrow, Wandisa has grown in leaps and bounds! It is the testimonies of children and families whose lives Wandisa has touched that have entrenched its position as a leader in the professional adoption arena. Driven by our vision of finding every child a safe and nurturing place to call “home”, we are committed to seeing every case through the eyes of the child at its center. Our difference lies in the deep love we have for the children and families we serve and the relationships we build with them – and earns us the privilege of seeing how wholistically their lives are impacted by adoption as the years go by.

Because we have extensive input from child rights experts and professionals in other disciplines, our Team is perfectly placed to carry out its statutory responsibilities in terms of the Children’s Act, to properly assess the unique needs each child has and to prioritise how best to meet those needs. Our Team also has additional support from Wybrow-Oliver Attorneys to ensure the child’s best interests are given paramount importance, in line with the Constitutional right to family life and with the hierarchy of options in the Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention.

Accredited by the National Department of Social Development to facilitate both local and intercountry adoptions, Wandisa networks and collaborates with role players throughout South Africa and internationally. Through these collaborations, Wandisa has directly impacted the lives of thousands of South African children. We are based in Somerset West and designated as a child protection organisation by the Western Cape Department of Social Development, to whom we are grateful for both its support and subsidy.

Proudly South African, Wandisa first tries to find a screened and approved local family for each adoptable child, currently available to adopt and able to best meet that child’s specific needs. Suitable families will have been through Wandisa in-house screening and preparation courses or have been deemed eligible and ready to adopt by other registered social work professionals.

Where a child’s interests would best be served by placement outside of South Africa, Wandisa works with agencies in the US, The Netherlands, and France with whom it has formal Hague Working Agreements, to find a family for that child. These bilateral treaties have been endorsed by the Governments and relevant adoption authorities in each country and provide a secure framework to further protect children. Together with Wybrow-Oliver Attorneys, Wandisa has facilitated over 200 intercountry adoptions into France, The Netherlands, and the US. Many of these placements benefit children with special needs or those who have faced extraordinary trauma.

Wandisa believes that adoption remains the primary child protection mechanism for those without proper parental care who would benefit from the nurture and mentorship of family.

Wandisa adopts a child-centered, intersectoral and trauma-informed approach in providing the full range of child protection services, with an emphasis on permanency planning, including through adoption. Serving children entails supporting the Children’s Court and implementing its orders to prevent children from experiencing harm, to intervene as early as possible in crisis situations, to reunify children where this is best for them, and to place them in alternative care where necessary (which could be interim safe care, foster care or adoption).

Our social workers conduct professional investigations and provide forensic reports where abuse, neglect, or abandonment are suspected, and where necessary, remove children to protect them from danger.

Over and above counseling and supporting birth parents (including teenagers and those in crisis with unplanned pregnancies), we also give options counseling to empower birth parents to make informed choices that protect the child and themselves. We are determined to increase our reach because what we do is integral to solving our country’s epidemic of violence, abuse, and neglect of children. Our Wandisa Team is devastated by the increasing number of babies who are unsafely abandoned in South Africa – and who die alone. We are seized with the urgency of providing options that save children’s lives. And then we want to see those children thrive!

Our specialisation lies in serving the most vulnerable of children: those who have experienced abandonment, abuse, neglect; who are orphaned, parentless or institutionalised; those with no suitable family options; those with special needs that are medical, neuro-cognitive or psycho-emotional, or that have arisen as a result of violence or trauma in any form. We regard institutionalisation as the last resort for any child because of its inherent trauma. We believe that every hour of every day counts, particularly in the first 1000 days of a child’s life, and that we must do all we can professionally to minimise the physiological and long term impact of trauma on children’s lives.

The Wandisa Team utilises its social work expertise to assess children’s needs, especially those who face challenges. In terms of our designation and accreditation, we provide forensic reports required by Court in respect of children, screening and eligibility assessments of prospective adoptive parents, and facilitate adoptions by matching, referring, and transitioning children into permanent homes.

We believe that every child can be positively impacted for a lifetime through adoption. And that the impact of adoption goes even further than that: when children’s needs are met, whatever those needs are, and children are empowered to reach their full potential, families, communities, and societies can flourish.