On her 35th birthday, psychologist Marília Alves Facco, 43, was invited by employees of the Infancy and Youth Court at the Lapa Forum in São Paulo to meet the twin siblings Laura and Lucas, then almost two years old and in line for adoption. She and her husband, Emerson Paes Barros, 50, have been together for 24 years and had planned for adoption from the beginning of their relationship.
The couple completed the qualification process, never making any distinction based on skin color. When registering as prospective adopters, both men and women can filter by age and ethnicity. Laura and Lucas, both nine years old, are black. In Brazil, one black minor finds a family for every four white adopted.
The percentage of adopted black children and adolescents has been rising since 2019 when counting began by the National Council of Justice. In the first year of the series, out of 759 minors placed for adoption, 6% (44) were black, while browns and whites represented 31% (239) and 28% (212), respectively. This year, from January to November 13, 698 minors were adopted, with 13.2% (92) being black.