Local baby home to host ball highlighting adoption

THE Durban North Baby Home will be hosting a ball to highlight World Adoption Day. The ball will be held at Coastlands Hotel on Thursday, 9 November, World Adoption Day.  Founders of the baby home, Jo and Bjorn Teunissen, known as ‘crisis parents’ said they adopted their son, Emmanuel, in 2014 and one year later they joined forces with the Peace Agency to form The Durban North Baby Home.

Jo said the home cares for abandoned, orphaned babies and babies given up for adoption. “We nurture each of our babies individually, providing them with the love and care that every child deserves. We do this until a permanent solution is found for each child.,” she said.

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The Durban North Baby Home cares for babies and toddlers between the age of 0 and 4, and children with special needs. The ball she said would be ‘ a major opportunity for those who would like to adopt, to socialise with families who have already gone through the process’.

“Many people see adoption as a ‘plan B’ when they are unable to have children of their own but it doesn’t necessarily have to be the last option. It is also about creating awareness to young mothers that they don’t have to abandon their babies. We can help them through the process of adoption where they can be rest assured knowing their child is in a safe and loving environment,” Teunissen said. She said its been found that in 2015 an estimate of 3000 children were adopted in South Africa. In 2016 this figure almost halved to 1165 and of that only eight of the adoptions came from Kwazulu-Natal.

Also read:New leaps for Durban North Baby Home

The master of ceremonies for the glittering event will be the newly-wed popular TV personality, Minnie Dlamini.  The guest speaker will be Lisa Bobbert McIlroy. Joanne said although all moneys raised will go towards the baby home, the idea behind the event is to create awareness and celebrate the day.

“We didn’t adopt our son to save the world, the truth is that our little guy has changed our lives completely and if it weren’t for him we would not have had the idea of starting the baby home. We wanted to make a difference somehow.

Tickets cost R 500 per person and numbers are limited to 250. Call Joanne to buy your ticket on 082 7730 781.

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