Yet another precious little bundle was safely relinquished by the Helderberg Baby Saver last week.
The infant, estimated to be two months old, is the 10th baby to benefit from the Somerset West facility since its inception eight years ago. The latest arrival is also the fourth to be given a chance at life via the baby saver in the last few months.
The baby saver is a special safe built into the side wall of Choices Crisis Pregnancy Centre in Schapenberg Road and acts as a last port of call for help and hope, enabling the safe abandonment of an unwanted baby. When a baby is placed in the safe, an alarm is triggered and appointed respondents, including security officers and emergency personnel, collect the infant. The response is linked to child protection organisation Wandisa, which sees to the statutory processes.
The saver was launched in August 2014 and used for the first time in October 2015, when Baby Ayabonga was placed in the special safe (“Baby named,” DistrictMail, 15 October 2015). The heart warming success story was followed by another relinquishment in 2017 (“Newborn gets a chance at life,” 9 November 2017), two in 2018 (“Baby saver works again,” 26 April; “Fourth newborn benefits from ‘saver’, 4 October), one in 2019 (“Another cherub placed in ‘saver’, 11 July) and one last year. Four babies have been placed in the safe this year: Baby Ava (“Yet another baby saved,” 10 March), Baby Ruby (“Baba Ruby vorder goed,” 21 April), Baby Nathan (“Baby Nathan underscores ‘safe abandonment’, 1 June), and now Baby Thabo.
“Last week a brave mommy made the very difficult decision to relinquish her baby boy safely through our Baby Saver,” a post shared on the Helderberg Baby Saver Facebook page. “Our thoughts are with her, and we want her to know that ‘Thabo’ (as we have named him for now) is safe and well and being cared for.
“Thabo is our 10th baby – so far five girls and five boys have been safely relinquished through our saver. In South Africa, two out of three babies who are unsafely abandoned, die – so we are very grateful to be able to provide this safe alternative.”
The facility is grateful to its dedicated team and partners, including Wandisa Specialist Child Protection & Adoption Agency, and called for locals to sign a petition supporting its proposal that safe relinquishing through Baby Savers be legalised. For more: https://chng.it/bsKQvJ2qLJ.
