Child Protection Week: Two out of three abandoned babies die

In light of this, the National Adoption Coalition of SA (Nacsa) has launched new research into the incidence of child abandonment and a new communication campaign to address this ongoing social challenge.

A total of 26 organisations representing 33 NGO run Child and Youth Care Centres (CYCC) took part in the research, which equates to 10 per cent of registered CYCCs in South Africa.

According to the Nacsa, the research found that the number of abandoned children has declined in these centres especially in Gauteng and KZN, however, the number of anonymous abandonments appears to be increasing.

“This means that there is very little chance of these children ever being reunited with their biological families,” said Katinka Pieterse, Chair of NACSA.

“This highlights the continued importance of child protection strategies such as adoption.  Sadly, the number of adoptions remains extremely low in South Africa, with only 1349 adoptions taking place in 2016/2017,”

• Reasons for abadonment 

Pieterse said reasons cited by child protection officers for the increase in anonymous abandonment include a lack of support or social services for foreign mothers in the government departments of Justice, Home Affairs, Health, Police Services and Social Development.

Another reason given is that hospitals have significantly improved their security and protocols around child birth in South Africa, making anonymous safe abandonment in hospitals unlikely.

The research has prompted the development of a new awareness campaign under NACSA’s crisis pregnancy brand, ‘Choose to Care’.

According to Dee Blackie, campaign coordinator and child protection activist said a major concern is that they are seeing an increase in the amount of premature and severely disabled abandoned children.

“Child protection officers that I have interviewed believe that this is associated with late abortion, in the third trimester, and the fact that pregnant mothers are not appropriately cared for, or educated about the risk of bad nutrition and the consumption of drugs and alcohol whilst pregnant.

“Research conducted by UNICEF in 2013 found that the number of disabled children in child and youth care centres is three times that of our general childhood population in South Africa.

“Not only are these children abandoned, but they must then contend with a disability or disorder that will impact them for the rest of their lives,” noted Blackie.

The campaign hopes to continue raising awareness for child abandonment in South Africa as well as providing support to mothers experiencing a crisis pregnancy.

“The research, although limited, is also a very important step in starting to take responsibility for our abandoned children in South Africa,” said Pieterse.

• The National Adoption Coalition of South Africa is an NGO that represents the child protection community, including social workers, crisis pregnancy homes, child and youth care centres, places of safety and adoption.  Its vision is to unify and empower our communities and society, to create positive and permanent change in the lives of our children.