Displaying items by tag: abandoned babies

In 2019, Namibia passed legislation saying that women who, out of desperation, took the drastic step of abandoning their child, would no longer be prosecuted. Abandoned babies were dying. Safe places where an infant could be left were established, but there is still not enough awareness of the legal changes. Linda left her baby in a baby-saver box - a drawer built into a wall of a compound in Swakopmund that has a mattress and a blanket inside. There is also a letter. ‘Dearest mommy, please know that we do not judge you,’ reads the reassuring note. ‘We cannot begin to understand the circumstances that have brought you here.’ Linda knows her baby is safe. But despite the change in the law, babies continue to be abandoned in unsafe places. Between 2018 and 2022, 140 babies were abandoned - far more than those left in safe places.