Extended party for safehouse's 10 years

THE AAA Safehouse in Westering, Port Elizabeth, is hosting a month- long stork party ahead of its 10th birthday next month.

In 2004 AAA founder Debbie Devoy, now 58, opened her doors to abandoned and abused babies from all parts of the city.

The big party will be held on November 1, the haven's birthday. Before that date in 2004, Devoy's Rowallan Park house had been home to vulnerable infants: "Having been an abandoned child myself who grew up in orphanages, somewhere inside of me was always this primal need to care for children," she said.

"[In] 2001, whenever I picked up the newspaper there would be a report about babies abandoned in bins, in malls, in the bushes. I phoned a social worker to ask how I could assist.

"Within two weeks, I had my first abandoned bundle dropped off at 5am by the police. She was only five hours old, wrapped in a towel with her umbilical cord still on. My life was never the same again."

While AAA only has four little ones in its care now, hundreds of infants have left its temporary home for "forever homes and parents". - Alvené du Plessis