Findings by child protection activists yesterday revealed that while child abandonment cases have slightly declined, a new trend known as “anonymous abandonments” is on the rise with little chance of children being reunited with their biological families.
“In the past it used to be that children were left in hospitals and at children’s homes, and officials would have the mother’s details.
“Now more and more children are left in the veld and in dangerous zones with nothing — not even a note,” child activist Dee Blackie said yesterday at the Princess Alice Adoption Home in Westcliff, Johannesburg.
According to her research, two out of three abandoned babies die.
And of the 200 abandoned babies found in Joburg every month, only 60 of them survive.
According to Blackie, 26 organisations which run Child and Youth Care centres took part in the study to ascertain real figures of how many children are in fact “thrown away” by their parents as no real or updated numbers currently exist in the country.
She said reasons cited by child protection officers for the increase in anonymous abandonment includes a lack of support or social services for foreign mothers in government departments of Justice, Home Affairs, Health, Social Development and SAPS.
“Not only are these children abandoned, they must then contend with a disability or disorder that will impact them for the rest of their lives.”