No space for baby

HOMELESS people in the Cape Town suburb of Table View have found a safe place tostore their valuables.

Unfortunately their storage facility is a special safe fitted with a hi-tech alarm system intended for desperate mothers to leave their babies if they cannot care for them.

The homeless, often referred to in the Cape as ''bergies'', have caused endless nightmares for Kim Highfield, the founder of Baby Save, which is geared at reducing the high number of abandoned babies in the province.

Last year, she had the safe mounted on to a wall of a church building in Table View. The metal structure is lined with a baby blanket and a pillow.

Once a baby is placed in the safe, an alarm is set off and within seconds Highfield receives an SMS.

Five minutes later Highfield is there to collect the baby and is always ready to help the mother.

Shortly after the project was launched in May last year, the bergies started causing trouble.

"The West Coast Family Centre very kindly said they would open the gates so the mother could walk in," said Highfield. "Instead, bergies moved in at night and their presence scared mothers away. They think the safe is a drawer to store their blankets, booze, clothing and toiletries. Sometimes they have heavy haversacks. Anything over 1.5kg lets off a signal and I get an SMS," she said.

I cannot not go. What if there is a baby there? I can't always assume it is them putting their wine and bedding in the safe."

Because of the problem, she was only able to help four babies.

Highfield will set up a similar project in the suburb of Muizenberg next year and hopes the Table View project can be saved.

Melany Kühn, spokesman for the MEC of social development, Albert Fritz, had harsh messages for the vagrants and advice for mothers.

"We strongly condemn this action by vagrants as it could eventually lead to a call not being responded to under the assumption that it's just another false alarm," said Kühn. We also appeal to mothers to seek any and all available help rather than dispose of their babies on rubbish heaps or dirt bins. This is tantamount to murder or attempted murder." (From Timeslive)