Johannesburg - The newborn baby came into the office of Joburg Child Welfare wrapped in a dirty jersey.
The young woman who carried her told social workers that she was the baby’s cousin.
The birth mother didn’t want the child, she said.
But Lungi Mosoabi, the organisation’s intake social worker, suspected there was more to the story.
“She was giving us conflicting answers and she looked so uncomfortable and nervous.”
When Mosoabi later confronted her, the woman broke down, conceding she was the baby’s mother.
She could not afford to raise the child.
“She told me she had given birth at home, jumped into a taxi and came to us for help. Then, she asked for forgiveness.
“I told her that she had come to the right place and we sent both her and the baby for medical attention.”
For Lowina Fourie, the organisation’s child and family unit manager, that the woman asked for help is evidence of the success of ongoing campaigns run by the National Adoption Coalition of South Africa (Nacsa) to address child abandonment.
“This is what we want these mothers to know - that there is help out there.
“There are centres that can help them, there are baby bins, so as not to leave their babies on the street because they could die there.”
This week, Joburg Child Welfare was one of the 26 organisations representing 33 non-governmental child and youth care centres, who reported a decline in the number of abandoned babies in their centres.
But, alarmingly, their research also revealed that in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, in particular, the number of anonymous abandonments appears to be increasing.
This is largely because of poor support from government departments and hospitals that have significantly improved their security and protocols around child birth.
Dee Blackie, Nacsa’s campaign co-ordinator, says many babies are abandoned very close to “places of safety” that can help these desperate mothers, but they often don’t know that they exist or where to find them.
“More of these babies are left in the veld, on rubbish dumps and in other unsafe spaces. Social workers tell us of officials that say ‘if you know foreign mothers want to put their babies up for adoption, the mother and child must be deported.’
“I definitely think it influences these poor women to take more desperate measures.”
Research in 2012 estimated that of the 200 abandoned babies found monthly in Joburg, only 60 survive.
Its campaign features posters depicting a tombstone - similar to roadside memorials - with the statistic that two out of three abandoned babies die.These will be placed in areas where babies have been abandoned.
The posters highlight the danger of child abandonment and guide those experiencing a crisis pregnancy to a nearby place of safety or baby home that can assist them.
“It’s a way to pay tribute to these little lives that have been lost, but are also a real safety net,” says Blackie.