Abandoned babies, toddlers face losing their home — again

A respected Buffalo City Metro children’s home that cares for abandoned and critically ill infants may be forced to hand more than 20 babies and toddlers over to state care within weeks as a severe funding crisis threatens its survival. Guardians of Hope, a registered child and youth care centre and one of only two facilities in the metro that accepts children under the age of four, cares for 27infantsand young children. Without urgent financial intervention, it will have to reduce its capacity from 30 to just six — effectively surrendering 21 of the most vulnerable children in its care.

The nonprofit organisation has written to the department of social development warning of a “critical financial crisis” and confirming it has begun retrenching staff, reducing its workforce from 16 to 10 employees. If new funding is not secured by March 31, 21 children may have to be handed over to the department. Guardians of Hope operates as a dedicated place of safety for newborns to six-year-olds who have been abandoned, surrendered at birth for adoption, found destitute, or require palliative care.

Since its inception in 2017, it has taken in infants abandoned in hospitals, fields, rubbish bins and at police stations. The home has previously won a Daily Dispatch Local Heroes award for its work. Founder Elaine Brenkman said informing staff of the retrenchments was one of the most difficult moments she had ever faced.

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“I found it hard to look my staff in the eyes and tell them that they could be let go because there is no money,” she said. But the prospect of handing children over to the state is even more devastating. “It is devastating to think that these children are being moved just because there is a cash crunch,” Brenkman said.

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