Door of Hope, a Johannesburg-based non-governmental organisation caring for abandoned, unwanted and consented adoption babies, has received 31 abandoned children in the past 12 months.
This is eight more than they received in 2020.
“To date we have taken in 1,819 babies in the past 22 years, of which 34% were received from hospital, 27% from the police or child protection services, 17% from biological family, 14% through our baby saver and the balance we received from other places of safety,” explained the organisation’s operations director, Nadene Grabham.
It costs them R5,000 per month to take care of a single child and this amount covers basic needs such as food, toiletries and medication, while a portion goes to the utility bills and another portion is paid towards the care worker’s salary.
“And due to the general increase in costs in all areas, this cost tends to increases on an annual basis too,” she said.
Door of Hope houses the babies until they are adopted or reunited with biological family, which is generally between six to 12 months.
“But in some cases it can be up to two to three years, depending on the circumstances around adoption or reunification. The main reasons we have heard for child abandonment are poverty, gender-based violence, rape, unwanted or teenage pregnancies and failed illegal abortion. Lack of paternal, family and community support is also a reason.”
In Gauteng, she said the most common spots that they are aware for unsafe abandonment are in and around the Johannesburg CBD, the Jukskei River in Alexandra and rubbish dump sites in and around informal settlements, while some parents leave their babies at hospitals.
Though child abandonment is a crime in SA, police ministry spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said they did not have figures of arrests in their crime register.
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