Mom dumps her new-born baby girl

Lucinda Evans, who runs Philisa Abafazi Bethu from her home, said the baby couldn't have been more than an hour or two old. File picture: Cindy Waxa

Lucinda Evans, who runs Philisa Abafazi Bethu from her home, said the baby couldn't have been more than an hour or two old. File picture: Cindy Waxa

Published Oct 23, 2015

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Cape Town - A newborn baby girl, wrapped in a pink blanket and a plastic carrier bag, still with her umbilical cord attached, was dropped at the gate of an NGO in Lavender Hill on Wednesday night.

Lucinda Evans, who runs Philisa Abafazi Bethu from her home, said the baby couldn’t have been more than an hour or two old.

The baby was taken to hospital and social workers were alerted. It is the second baby to have been left outside Evans’s house in three years and she now wants to raise funds to have a baby “safe” built into her wall.

These usually work on a system where a baby’s weight triggers an alarm in the safe to alert people to come and check.

Evans said she felt the mother should be given a chance to reconnect with her child.

“I completely understand what she did because she knew the baby would be safe and we would help. If she had left her in a bin or abandoned her somewhere it could have been much worse.”

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andrè Traut said Steenberg police officers had responded and the matter was referred to the Department of Social Development.

Earlier this month, a baby boy was placed in the “Helderberg Baby Saver” in Somerset West which was set up last year.

The baby, who was left with a blanket and a dummy, has been placed at an adoption agency.

Cape Argus

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