A Home for Abandoned Babies

South Africa is currently experiencing one of the most severe AIDS epidemics in the world. At the end of 2007, there were approximately 5.7 million people living with HIV in South Africa, and almost 1,000 AIDS deaths occurring every day.

As well as many children being infected with HIV in South Africa, many more are suffering from the loss of their parents and family members from AIDS. It is estimated that there were 1.5 million South African children orphaned by AIDS in 2007, compared to 780,000 in 2003. Once orphaned, these children are more likely to face poverty, poor health, and a lack of access to education or worse, complete abandonment.

Of some 1.5 million AIDS orphans in South Africa, The government provides support to about 238,000. To make matters worse, Child welfare organizations across South Africa have observed a significant increase in the number of abandoned babies in the past year.

Melanie and Sean Grant, a husband and wife team with a whole lot of love and compasion,wanted to make a difference in the lives of these poor little lost soles. The only home available in the area for abandoned babies housed children 0 - 18 and was currently filled to capacity. It was then they started the non-profit organization iKhaya LikaBab, which means "House of the Father" in Zulu. Their mission is to impact the lives of babies from birth up to three years old, whose future is being threatened by HIV /AIDS and abandonment by providing them with a home where they can experience loving relationships and be a part of a secure family environment whilst trying to find suitable families with whom to permanently place the children either through foster care or adoption.

The office is based out of Grant family home and the actually orphange is about a ten minute drive away. When I arrived, Melanie basically chucked me the keys to her house, her car and and the office and said she would see me in two weeks. She and her family had planned a visit to her parents in Cape Town and basicaly turned everything over to myself and another volunteer. Our second night at the house by ourselves the police arrive with a hungry, abandonded baby at 10pm. Two days later one of the babies at the orphanage has a break-out of what we suspect is chicken-poxs. All of the babies are distributed to foster families for the weekend. I get Jabu, who captures my heart immediately. When she arrived at the home this past August she was very traumatized as she had been abandoned at the taxi rank. This was the third time she has been abandoned. She was abandoned previously on a railway track. I was told that she wakes in the middle of the night and cries out of fright. So when this happened I though I would be prepared, but I wasn't. The sound of terror in her voice broke my heart. I instantly broke the #1 parent rule on my first night, "don't let them sleep in your bed". When she woke in the morning and looked over at me smiling, I could have cared less about "the rules". She felt safe and happy and that's all I cared about. I knew at that moment that she was going to be the one to make it hard for me to leave.