She was tiny for her age and later struggled to walk

MARTHA Mabetshe adopted her brother’s child when the girl was nine months old.

The baby had survived being in her mother’s uterus with her mom being drunk all day, every day, and after her birth was given wine to drink instead of milk.

“I knew right from the beginning this child wasn’t right,” said Mabetshe, “and I remember one lady told me: ‘We gave that woman clothes and a blanket for the baby, but she just sold them for wine.’ ”

When the infant was a month old, her mother left her on the steps of a social services office. She was in state care until social workers tracked down Mabetshe, who adopted her.

“I tried to give her some food and milk, but she was always sick and vomited up what I gave her.”

Mabetshe spent many nights sleeping at the baby’s bedside at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town over the next few months.

“I didn’t accept what the doctors were saying. I loved her so much. She was so tiny for her age, and later struggled to learn to walk. Her face was so small but I didn’t want to go back to the hospital to be told it was a permanent thing.”

From the age of two, the child would constantly thrust her body back and forth in a rocking motion, and violently flick her head from side to side at bedtime. That only stopped when she was seven.

“At primary school in Gugulethu, they kept pushing her up to the next grade. But at high school she couldn’t cope and dropped out and now she is 20 and sits at home,” said Mabetshe.

“It has been so hard, but I love her so much.”

Mabetshe’s name has been changed to protect the identity of her niece.