Hole in the wall offers hope for Aids babies

By ALEX DUVAL SMITH

DURBAN - The hatch slams shut, a bell rings and Raphael Kayamba has the future of yet another anonymous individual on his hands. A deacon at Berea Baptist Mission in Johannesburg, Kayamba deals with the living, kicking proof of the South African Aids crisis.

"The mothers who are abandoning their babies are young," said Kayamba, a 39-year-old engineer who for a year has dedicated his life to finding homes for infants left at his church's "door of hope."

"The mothers come here almost as soon as they are out of labour at Johannesburg Hospital nearby, bringing their small children. The reason is Aids. But some of the babies are so small that you can tell they were brought to us even before the mother received the result of her child's HIV test. Maybe some of the mothers have Aids and are worried about their child's future. We do not really know," he said.

In the year since the "door of hope" has been installed in the white brick wall of the inner-city church, 32 mothers have lifted the aluminium hatch and lain their newborn on a thin layer of white foam beneath which a mechanism triggers a bell in a house in the church compound. On hearing the bell, which usually rings at night, a church volunteer collects the child.

"Miraculously, only four of our babies have tested HIV positive and I think that proves that the mothers generally do not know their child's status," said Kayamba.

Kayamba said the idea for the "door of hope" came from Latin America and is to be expanded to other South African cities. He admitted it was controversial.

"We introduced the door of hope because 100 babies are abandoned every month in the streets of Johannesburg and 55 per cent of them are HIV-positive. They are abandoned in dustbins. Some people say the door encourages women to abandon their babies. But we just care about saving lives," he said.

The children taken in by Kayamba are taken to a baby home while foster parents are found through the church.

- INDEPENDENT