In 2022, Baby Savers South Africa reported that every year, over 10 000 babies are abandoned in South Africa, with the vast majority of them being found dead.
One organisation, which sees a sizeable number of abandoned babies, some of them as young as two days old almost on a daily basis, is the Door of Hope Children’s Mission in Glenvista, south of Johannesburg.
It is a faith-based facility for children between age 0 to 5 years, founded in 1999 through the Baby Saver Box at the Berea Baptist Mission, as a last resort for desperate mothers to ensure their children are not left on the street but find a place to care for them, and possibly be given up for adoption at a later stage.
Since then, this secure and loving home with three branches has been home to no less than 200 babies at a time.
As part of Mandela Month, The Star and Saturday Star, paid the Glenvista branch of the institution for a blanket donation drive.
Head Care Giver for Door of Hope, Francinah Phago, expressed gratitude for the donated blankets. “We are grateful for the support and donations that we have received today. This means that, our kids will be warm for this Winter season. We had three homes, but at the moment we have two homes as one home was recently closed down.
“There are so many children that are abandoned left alone on the street and on the side of the road. We as a home do our best to help mothers who find themselves in difficult situations, to give their children a chance at life by taking them in and raising them until, we are able to give them up for adoption through an agency as well as through social workers,” she said.
Door of Hope has over the years seen no lesser than 2 000 children come through their homely and loving door.
According to the centre’s Claude Bonikay, some of the children, who had grown into young adults, often came to visit their original home.
“The work that we do is very difficult as you can see. However, I am always humbled when some of the children return to Door of Hope as young adults. One of the first children who is now based in the US recently came to visit us and that gave me tears of joy,’’ he said.
Of the more than 2 000 babies who have come through the facility, more than 800 have gone through successful adoptions in the 24 years of the facility’s existence.
The Star