Baby Savers South Africa

Over the past year Project Life has donated four baby savers to organisations- three in Cape Town and one in Durban.

Mandukas Formwork, a local formwork and scaffolding company helped to create these baby savers and sponsored the materials for them too.

Ashley Hertz, director of Mandukas Formwork with the welders who created the box.

We then had the help of an electrician to help build the technology onto the box that triggers a lock to lock the door of the baby saver and to send a message to a response team that a baby has been placed into the saver. 

The first baby saver was given to an organization in Bellville called Inceba Saving babies.

The official launch of the Inceba Saving Babies baby saver was on 17 October 2018 and a team of paramedics from ER 24 were there to show their support. A baby was placed in the saver to demonstrate how the baby saver works and among others, CNI security, who is also providing their services for the baby saver, came to show their support on the day.

The Inceba Saving Babies baby saver is located in close proximity to the Bellville station and is located in Quarry street Bellville, next to the big AGS church building. 

Demonstration of the saver.

ER 24 paramedics showing their support at the launch.

A letter left in the saver to offer words of comfort to a mother in distress.

The second baby saver was donated to Lucinda Evans from Philisa Abafazi, an organisation doing a range of community work to assist vulnerable women and children in Cape Town. 

The saver is located at 69 Hillary drive in Lavender Hill.

Lucinda Evans, founder of Philisa Abafazi and her team receiving their baby saver.

The precious feet of the first baby placed in the Lavender Hill baby saver.

                                                                                                   

                                                                                            
                                                                                                      


The first baby to be placed in the Lavender Hill Philisa Abafazi baby saver was placed in the saver during the early hours of 30 March 2019.


The baby girl, just two days old, was left with a letter from her mother. 
The baby girl is currently in foster care until she is placed with a forever family.

The third baby saver was given to Katherine Brink from Little Brinks and they are still in the process of finding a location for the baby saver as the location is vitally important.

The baby saver that was donated to Durban was given to Youndi from Open Arms SA and they too are in the process of having it installed. They have a location- it is being put into their wall of their home but are in the process of finding a builder to install.

We are very excited to see how God will use these baby savers to help women who feel that they have no other option but to abandon their baby. May many lives be saved!

I am also sad to say that Project Life will not make any more baby savers. The project was incredibly stressful and challenging and my children are too young at this point for me to be putting as much time into Project life as I was. As many of you know, I have made the decision to commit to homeschooling my children as long as they would like to be homeschooled. 

It was my dream to become a supplier of baby savers in South Africa, that are cost-effective and also locally made. Making the savers made us realise that other organisations making baby savers are putting a mark upon their savers, and I wanted to change that and supply something that organisations could actually afford. 

If you would like to purchase a saver contact Baby Safe International who I'm sure will gladly assist you. 

Introducing: Project Life


In South Africa, one in every four women is physically abused by her intimate partner. 

Every six hours, a woman is killed by her current or former intimate partner.

110 rapes are reported to the police each day but in reality the number is far higher as so many victims do not report their rape to the police.

Each day, 22 babies are abandoned in dangerous places and left to die.


These are some shocking statistics that show that women and children in South Africa are at risk of being raped, abused, or being abandoned at birth, HIV positive, or in a crisis pregnancy.

Women in any one of these crises need to find a support structure, and need to be informed about what their options are, so that they can make healthier choices - choices that are not destructive to their health or to their babies - and to find organizations that can assist them and help them heal from the trauma of the crises of which they find themselves to be victims.

Women need to be made aware of organizations and places of safety that can help them, because women deserve more from life than suffering in silence or suffering alone.

The problem is that - despite the fact that we live in a time when information is at our  fingertips - not all organizations have a website or Facebook page, and not all organizations are well marketed or known by their local community.


Project Life has created a website that we hope will become the "go to" website to which women in crisis can go in order to find the resources that they need.

The website is designed to be a mobile friendly search engine where women will be  able to type in a keyword related to the specific crisis in which they find themselves. The details of the organizations that can assist in that crisis will then be listed and grouped according to each province.

Our aim is that the Project Life website will become a well-known safety net of information to which women in crisis can attain access, however this site will also serve as a helpline to those wanting to adopt. They will be able to find the contacts that they need on the site, in order that  a positive change can be made to the orphan crisis here in South Africa.

Project Life also aims to be more than just an online directory. 

Our goals include: 

-To provide support to women in crisis pregnancy through online crisis pregnancy counselling

-Raising awareness and getting involved in activism to prevent baby abandonment by informing people where existing baby grace boxes are.
(A baby grace box is a box designed for a woman to safely and anonymously abandon her baby by placing the baby in the box.)

-Encouraging more churches and organizations to have a baby grace box put up in their local community.

-Having our own brand of baby grace boxes that will be cost effective and support the local economy and create job opportunities.

-Raising awareness for the adoption cause and encouraging more people to adopt, become foster parents and kangaroo mothers.

-Having "clean up my city" campaigns.  This involves people going into areas where illegal posters advertising third trimester abortions are ripped off lampposts and street lights.  These posters are in turn recycled.  (Up to 60% of babies abandoned are third trimester illegal botched abortions.)

-Encouraging women to make choices that are healthy for both mother and baby. 

-We want to support mothers who choose to keep their babies, by providing them with information of places that can assist them should they need help. 

-Having "Project Mommy and Baby Pack" campaigns where we visit local hospitals and clinics and take women who have just given birth a gift containing some supplies and essentials for the first few weeks of baby's life. A pamphlet listing places and organizations that assist women in the different crises that women are vulnerable to,  will be included in these packs. (eg. rape crisis centres, abuse crisis centres, baby grace box locations, crisis pregnancy centres).

-Having pamphlet drives in government hospitals and rural clinics.


 -A pamphlet design for each province listing the organizations which can help women. 

-These pamphlets will be available for download should someone in another province want to do a pamphlet drive or put up posters in their local community.

-The pamphlets will also be updated as more organizations and baby grace boxes are added to our database.

-Having posters put up in local hospitals, clinics and libraries to educate and inform employees (nurses, hospital staff and librarians) of the locations of the baby grace boxes.

-Having fundraisers for existing NPOs and NGOs who are assisting women in crises and assisting vulnerable orphans and the unborn.

-Various activism campaigns using radio, social media, newspapers, magazines, and television.

-The visiting of local Churches and schools and doing educational talks to raise awareness of the local organizations that can assist, should girls and women need any of the resources.


During the month of February Project Life will be having our first 10 days of activism campaign that will start on the 23rd. I am excited to be sharing at the Mighty Women's Conference on the 24th of February and to share my own story of why I have a heart for women in crisis pregnancy and raise awareness for the cause. The conference starts on the 23rd to the 25th and will be on the Moreson Farm. Tickets available at Computicket.com.

 

Educating and empowering women is very close to my heart as I found myself in a crisis pregnancy when I was only 14 years old and - sadly - decided to abort my baby.

For years I struggled with the guilt and regret of not choosing life for my baby, to the point where I even attempted suicide just to end the pain. That was the night that I became a Christian, and since then, I have become a Gospel musician, speaker, and activist for the rights of the unborn, as well as the rights of the vulnerable orphan. I believe that the Church needs to get more involved in assisting women in crisis pregnancies, and  to not judge or condemn women who are in these situations,. I proclaim fervently that the Church of Christ should be a safe place for the broken and the lost. So many women in the Church have had abortions, and are struggling with feelings of self-condemnation.  I am shocked by how many women come to me after I have spoken at Churches, confessing to me that they have had an abortion, but have never told a soul up until that moment.

If you have had an abortion, know that - if you repent - God is faithful and just to forgive and restore, and there is no sin which is too powerful for the blood of Jesus, and the grace that we find in Him and through Him.   

Last week I also had the great honor of speaking at the Cape Town March for Life and raising awareness for Project Life. I took some pamphlets with me that were spread around- pamphlets that list the existing baby grace box locations in Cape Town.
Please note that these baby boxes are not run by Project Life- they are independently run and Project Life is simply raising awareness of their location.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer or if you are interested in starting a baby grace box in your community please email melissa@projectlife.org.za.

And if you are an organization or any of the following, and want to be listed on our website, please visit our website www.projectlife.org.za

The Project Life website allows for organizations to register themselves so that we can hopefully include all the organizations supporting women and children in these causes.


Organizations who assist with adoptions

Pre and post abortion counselling

Crisis pregnancy centres

Crisis pregnancy helplines

Baby grace boxes/drop boxes/safe boxes


Visit our Facebook page for more updates and if God leads you, please consider supporting us financially, so that we can have more awareness campaigns.

Donations of nappies, sanitary towels, baby toiletries, wet wipes, and baby clothes and blankets would be so appreciated for our Project Mommy Baby packs.

Project Life is an NPC focusing on empowering women in crisis and offering hope to the vulnerable. 


Together we can achieve so much more!