MUST READ: Abandoned babies get new lease on life
BEREA – Door of Hope, established in 1999, operate a Baby House in Berea, Johannesburg, with the aim of providing abandoned babies with a new lease on life.
A newborn baby wrapped in plastic was recently found abandoned in a rubbish bin by passersby in Berea. They acted promptly to ensure the baby was rescued and taken to hospital by paramedics.
It is in light of incidents such as these that the Door of Hope was started in 1999 as a non-profit organisation with the primary goal of receiving abandoned, abused and orphaned babies and children. Reports at the time suggested the spate of newborns being dumped and often left for dead due to starvation or exposure, numbered anything between 40 and 50 every month.
Since then, the Door of Hope has established three Baby Houses. They currently operate one Baby House in Doris Street, Berea, and another two in Glenvista, south of Johannesburg.
Nadene Grabham, who is the operations director at Door of Hope said the organisation offers desperate mothers an alternative and provides abandoned babies with much-needed sanctuary.
“The Baby Houses have a hole which has a baby bin, allowing mothers to place their babies inside by opening the door situated outside,” explained Grabham.
“The moment a baby is placed inside the bin, care workers on duty receive an electronic signal, alerting them. The baby is then removed using an inside door from within the yard, and the anonymity of the donor is ensured.”
Watch: Priscilla Ratsela, a care worker at the Baby House in Berea talks us through the procedure to follow for dropping off babies.
https://www.facebook.com/CityBuzzJHB/videos/1027159074081784/
Watch: Priscilla Ratsela, a care worker at the Baby House in Berea talks us through what happens after a baby is dropped off.
https://www.facebook.com/CityBuzzJHB/videos/1027162904081401/
Priscilla Ratsela, who has been a care worker at the Baby House in Berea since 2011, which currently houses 18 infants and toddlers aged 0 to 24 months, describes her work as fulfilling. “My working at Door of Hope comes with some challenges but it’s quite the experience,” she said.
“The first time I saw a child come through the baby bin, it was hard for me to come to grips with the fact that this was indeed a child that I was seeing.”
She added that she would often cry at the sight of babies left inside the bin. “It’s been a difficult thing but I’ve gotten used to it. I love babies with all my heart… they relieve me of stress from time to time.”
Whilst the Door of Hope baby bin was an innovative idea, Grabham added that the organisation has often been criticised as it was felt that it encouraged abandonment. She, however, refuted this, “To date, we have received only 10 per cent of our babies through the baby bin. It’s the uniqueness of this ‘hole in the wall’ concept that’s made us prominent, allowing us to become one of the foremost homes in Johannesburg for abandoned babies.”
