By Anazonwu Chizoba Vivian

World Adoption Day highlights the importance of providing vulnerable children with safe, loving and permanent family environments through responsible, transparent and lawful adoption practices.

The Nov. 9 annual observance recognises adoptive parents, adoptees and others whose lives have been shaped by adoption, while promoting awareness of children’s rights and the need for appropriate alternative care arrangements.

In Anambra, the observance underscores the importance of strengthening child protection and alternative care systems under the administration of Governor Chukwuma Soludo

Through the Ministry of Women and Social Welfare, the state government has introduced measures aimed at improving alternative care arrangements, including caregiver screening, monitoring and adoption procedures.

The measures are intended to ensure that children requiring alternative family care are placed in safe environments and that adoption processes comply with established legal requirements.

The government has also warned against illegal adoption, child trafficking and the sale or exploitation of children, emphasising that all adoption processes must follow due legal procedures.

Adoption should provide children who genuinely require alternative family care with protection, stability, dignity and opportunities for a better future. It must not become a channel for trafficking, abuse or the unlawful separation of children from their biological families.

Achieving this requires transparent adoption procedures, proper documentation, effective monitoring of children’s homes and functional family reunification programmes where appropriate.

Prospective adoptive parents should use only recognised and legally approved channels, while members of the public should report suspected cases of child trafficking, abuse and illegal adoption to the appropriate authorities.

As Anambra joins the global observance, sustained efforts to strengthen child welfare policies and enforce existing safeguards remain essential to ensuring that every adoption serves the best interests of the child.