Concern raised about the rate of abandoned new born babies

Mbasa Gqokoma

24 July 2015

The African Christian Democratic Party in the Western Cape is calling on the community to stop abandoning babies.

This comes after a recent statistic revealed that 79 children had been abandoned between April 2014 and March 2015.

ACDP Western Cape Leader Ferlon Christians said, I am actually disturbed that we have 79 children that have been abandoned between April 2014 and March 2015.

Christians said we are asking parents to please contact the Department of Social Services before abandoning the children.

“We want to speak to mothers that are pregnant, that are abandoning their new born babies also to contact the Department of Social Services to have these children adopted” Christian added.

Meanwhile Child Welfare South Africa said it has seen a decrease in child abandonment due to the increase in services that is able to assist in this matter.

Child Welfare’s Charmaine Rugunandan said instead of abandoning a child like they used to before, there is more wide-spread information network amongst the volunteers.

“The volunteers are better educated on how to respond when they see an abandoned child” Rugunandan concluded.