Baby safe on the cards for Glenwood
Funding for the baby safe has been secured, and it will be installed in the boundary wall at the Hop Shop around June.
WITH the news that another baby had been found dumped in Umbilo last week, the announcement that a baby safe is to be installed in Glenwood has been widely welcomed.
The body of the baby boy was found in a plastic packet which had been discarded on a pathway along Commodore Road in Umbilo. According to Rescue Care Paramedics, the infant was declared deceased on the scene.
Kim Brown of the NPO Likhon iThemba described the number of incidents of dumped babies and foetuses this year as shocking. This had prompted her and co-founder of the NPO, Leanne Lorrance to motivate for a baby safe to be erected in Glenwood where desperate mothers could leave their babies safely, knowing they would be taken care of.
Brown said the R10 000 funding for the project had been received and the baby safe would be installed in the boundary wall at the Hop Shop at 121 Helen Joseph Road in around two months’ time. She thanked the ward councillor, Mmabatho Tembe and Heather Rorick, CPF chair, for their support.
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“The woman will be able to open the safe and place their child inside on a weight plate. Once the safe is closed, an alarm is activated on three phones and we will be able to go to retrieve the child. We will have backup from SAPS, a local security company and an ambulance. The case will then be reported, medical checks will be done, and the case will go to a social worker,” said Kim.
Kim and Leanne, who run HOLAH Baby House and the Charity Hop Shop in Helen Joseph Road, said they wanted mothers to know that the Hop Shop was a place they could go to and not be judged.
“Our goal is to offer options for moms, as well as support and advice. A lot of these cases where babies are dumped or abandoned is due to a lack of education as the mothers do not know what to do. There is a stigma attached to adoption and women tend to either leave their babies at the hospital or dump them after they are born, as some of these women have hidden their pregnancies from their families,” said Kim.
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