Doomed from the start

Nine-year-old Kabelo (not his real name) had his fate sealed shortly after his birth. He was suffocated in a plastic bag - and not by accident.

After giving birth, his mother dropped her healthy newborn into a bag and left him for dead on a rubbish dump in Krugersdorp, on the West Rand.

Kabelo was rescued from the jaws of death by a passer-by. But he will never lead a normal life. His suffocation caused brain damage.

The boy, at present in the care of Impilo Foster Home, in Cosmo City, Johannesburg, is amongthe large number of children abandoned daily in South Africa.

The foster home is run by emergency medical service ER24 and Impact Africa.

According to ER24, "Up to 10 newborn infants are abandoned [a day] ... Some are found in time and saved. Some are not, and die. Some, semi-asphyxiated in plastic bags, are rescued but grow up severely mentally impaired."

Patric Solomon, director of child rights organisation Molo Songololo, said South Africa had an incredibly high rate of child abandonment, "particularly of young children by young mothers".

"The reasons vary but poverty plays a huge role," he said.

According to a study by the National Adoption Coalition SA, 4.5million children of the country's 18.5million live with neither of their parents.

Collin Eknan, head of Impilo Foster Home, which opened on Tuesday, said "there are alternatives to throwing away a baby".

Eknan said he was working with clinics, police stations and schools in Diepsloot and Cosmo City to deal with the problem.

The organisation will facilitate adoptions to prevent children ending up like Kabelo, who costs the organisation R11000 a month for special schooling and a caregiver.

"That money could be used to care for six babies," Eknan said.

Additional reporting by Graeme Hosken