Help stop abandonment of babies

My concern is this issue where young women ditch their own innocent newborn babies in dustbins because of tough life circumstances.

I have noticed that each year the number of babies found discarded is increasing.

As I write this piece, I was shocked when I read in one of the newspapers that within a day more than one baby had been found abandoned by their mothers.

If you open a newspaper, listen to the radio or watch television news it is painful to see women portrayed as horrors of the nation with this kind of behaviour.

This is not something enjoyable and simple to us as women. I do believe that if we stand together as women we can find a way to overcome this problem.

I think the main reasons these women throw away their newborns is poverty and not receiving enough support from their partners or families.

Some mothers are victims of rape and feel the child will be a constant reminder of their rape nightmare.

As society, we need to talk about such issues in our communities so we can eradicate such activities.

This is no minor matter, we need to stop this cruelty.

The department of health collaborating with social development needs to take the initiative and play a major role by improving campaigns for family planning.

They should also look into establishing public orphanages where young mothers who are not ready to be parents can leave their babies safely without being interrogated on how and why they got pregnant at a young age.

If all community structures, including the church and politicians promoted the importance of family, no babies would be left stranded.

I do believe that this would be a good initiative because every pregnant woman would be able to deal with her child and not throw it away.

Thokozile Gumede KZN IFP Woman Brigade chairwoman