Local pregnancy centre needs aid with donations in wake of the pandemic
The centre provides positive alternatives to abortion and abandonment to any woman facing an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy.
Life Link Pregnancy Crisis Centre is in need of donations as the centre faces dire circumstances during Level 3 lockdown.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had disastrous effects on the well-being of pregnant women around the globe.
Decisions made at every level of the response to the pandemic are resulting in sharp rises in maternal and neonatal mortality as hospitals are scrambling for beds and space.
The centre provides positive alternatives to abortion and abandonment to any woman facing an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy.
Life Link was founded in 2001 by Sharon Rushton and celebrated its 19th birthday on Mandela Day.
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According to the director and founder, the centre aims to provide women facing unplanned pregnancies with options and support in their crisis.
“We are here to assist where we can but we do not get any funding from the government and rely on the generosity of the community.
“Many of the women seen at the centre during the pandemic have not received any assistance from government. It has been a very difficult time.
“Many of these women have no support from families and have been abandoned by the fathers of their children. Our youngest client to date was 12 years old. We have also been distributing masks to clients who have not had any.
“We noticed a drastic increase in cases in June 2020. Many women were unable to work and earn an income and were unable to buy necessities such as nappies, formula and food. We also saw an increase in the number of abandoned babies country-wide as women struggled to look after their children.
“We have seen a decrease in financial contributions from people in the community over the last three months.
“Many people have been affected financially by the pandemic and this has filtered down to NPOs. People’s movements have also been affected and so they haven’t been delivering donations to the centre.
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“We have a large ‘Single Mom Support Programme’ and give our clients baby clothing, formula, groceries and toiletries for both mom and baby who meet the specific criteria for the programme, but we can only assist the parent with such items if they have been donated to us.
“We are always in need of funding, donations such as toiletries for moms and babies, dry grocery items, nappies sizes one, two and three, formula and baby food. We are still in need of additional funding to complete our second phase of our building project.
“We would like women to know that we are here to listen to them and to listen to their problems. We will help where we can. We would also like to tell them that if they find they cannot look after the baby that they should come and see us so that we can tell them about the options available to them.
“Our services are free and confidential and include pregnancy testing, options counselling, HIV testing and counselling, ultrasounds, adoption information, adoption facilitation, pregnancy and birth advice, post abortion counselling.
“Do not abandon your baby, come and see us. We understand, we can help, we are in this together,” said Rushton.
The centre is about to start its baby safe project called ‘Jeremiah’s Hope’ which will be complete once the baby section has been built at the back of the house.
The centre will need to do some renovations in order to meet the requirements of opening a baby shelter.
A baby safe will be built in the wall of the house, linking the outside and inside of the house. There will be staff members on call 24 hours a day so someone is available almost immediately to receive a baby from the safe, particularly at odd night hours.
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This safe will also be protected in that when someone puts a baby inside and it closes, the safe will automatically lock, preventing anyone from snatching the infant.
An alarm in the baby safe will go off and ring inside the house, signalling there is a new arrival.
The home will have full-time house parents who will be there to remove babies from the safe.
For more information, contact Life Link on 083 562 6106.
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