Nadene Grabham, Operations Director of Door of Hope Children’s Mission in Johannesburg and co-founder of Baby Saver South Africa, is sounding the alarm. Baby Saver South Africa, established in 2021, is a coalition created to unify organisations offering safe spaces for mothers in crisis. Now, their efforts face a major legal roadblock.
The Department of Social Development has recently declared baby savers illegal. Grabham clarified, “Nowhere is it written that the actual baby saver box is illegal… the use of the baby box is illegal because the mother placing her baby in the baby saver box is actually abandonment.”
Grabham believes this interpretation fails to understand the real function of baby savers. She said, “I think even before baby savers was established, baby abandonment was already happening.” The crisis is not new, and the boxes, she argues, do not cause it.
SMread: Al Azhar Mosque: Bomb Threat Sparks Outrage in Cape Town
It’s in the numbers
The numbers tell their own story. “So far with all the baby savers in the country, whereas close to about 550 babies have been saved… more than 3,000 babies are unsafely abandoned annually in South Africa.”
Grabham’s concern lies not only in the legality but in the lives lost if baby savers are shut down. She maintains that these boxes are vital interventions in a country struggling with poverty, gender-based violence, and limited access to support services for mothers in distress.
Baby Saver South Africa now faces a legal and moral crossroads. The organisation continues to advocate for policy change and for a more compassionate understanding of what leads mothers to such desperate decisions.
For more on this, watch the video below:
Image: The Citizen
