The National Guidelines on Alternative care define foster care and adoption as follows: Foster Care Foster Care is care provided to the child within a family setting other than the child’s biological or extended family. Foster care is done with the authorisation of a competent authority. A foster parent is usually selected, trained and supervised to provide care. Foster care can be on short term (less than 3 months), medium term(less than 6 months) and long term ( more than 6 months) Adoption is both a social and legal process whereby a child is placed legally and permanently with a parent or parents other than the birth (biological) mother or father. The adopted child is given the legal status as if the child had been born to the family and the new ties with the adoptive family are considered as equal to biological ties. There are two kinds of adoption: Local or Domestic Adoption is adoption involving adoptive parents and a child of the same nationality and the same country of residence. International or Intercountry Adoption is adoption involving parents of a nationality other than that of the child and includes a change in the child’s habitual country of residence.