How would our nation look if caring for our many unwanted and abandoned children became a habit? It would be happier for a start; safer, with less disease and less crime. There would be fewer orphans, fewer child-headed homes and fewer street kids. HIV cases would drop and the cycle of abuse could begin to be broken.
One of the biggest challenges we face here in South Africa is that of our countries abandoned or orphaned children. It is a time bomb the social effects of which we can’t begin to imagine. As AIDS and other diseases grip our nation and as unemployment rises we are faced with an awesome challenge; how are we going to deal with our hundreds of thousands of orphans, abandoned babies and street kids? How are we going to cope as this figure rises with the influx of sex tourists expected during the World Cup? Literally dozens of babies each day (some of them just 2 or 3 days old) are being left on the street outside the offices of Child Welfare, in public toilets or in rubbish bins. We cannot but act. |
