IT HAS finally happened.
Three years after its installation, a bouncy 10-month-old baby girl was deposited into the baby safe box just outside Isiaiah 54 Children’s Sanctuary.
The baby was dropped off anonymously at the Bluff home at about 4pm on Friday, 2 October.
“We had just returned from fetching a child from school. There was just chaos when we arrived home and of course, everyone was excited screaming, “We have a baby, we have a baby in the box!,” said founder of the home, Glynnis Dauth.
“Blue Security was also trying to phone us to tell us that there was a baby in the box. The children had already realised that something had happened and to them, it was a huge thing,” added Dauth.
After welcoming the baby, the legalities were then attended to. Both Glynnis and Jo Gilain secured documentation from Blue Security as witnesses and police paperwork was filed. The baby was then brought home, a medic assessed her and gave her a thumbs up health-wise. “Then our night started with a screaming child,” Glynnis said in jest.
“She’s quite tiny for 10 months, which tells us they obviously battled with feeding her, especially with the lockdown. This poor child’s mother must have gone through hell for her to get to a decision where she needed to put her baby in the box to survive.” Jo said because the baby was not a newborn is was a bit difficult for her to adjust to her new home. She said this is because the baby had built a bond with her mother and had some kind of understanding that her mother left. “She was not really happy at the beginning. It must be really confusing for her at her age. She’s small but old enough to realise that something has happened. She must have lived alone with her mom and now all of a sudden there are about 15 other children, the attention is no longer just for her only,” she said.
Jo added that the baby has hit her milestones very well and does just about anything a child of her age does. “People must not judge the mothers. It is very easy to shame them and say they are bad mothers for abandoning their babies but we have to commend them for not leaving her baby on the road. Also, shaming moms does not help women at all. We should rather look at the positive side to this that is that the baby is safe and cared for,” Glynnis added.
Isiaiah 54 Children’s Sanctuary is a crisis home for abused, abandoned and HIV/AIDS infected children. The children are given a temporary place to call home. Open Arms is a project of Isiaiah 54 that offers struggling moms assistance with their babies as a last resort means. Help is offered confidentially all day, every day free of judgement.
To extend a helping hand at the home, consider any one of these items on their wish list: beetroot, carrots, frozen corn, potatoes, butternut, frozen chips, meat or long-life milk. Alternatively, call or WhatsApp Glynnis or Jo on 084-488-1359. You could also make a donation to the home’s bank account: Isiaiah 54, Nedbank cheque account, account number: 1062200179 and branch code: 13082, Ref Wishlist. The home is situated on 5 Vimy Road, Bluff.
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