Shower of gifts for baby found in drain
Bags of clothes, nappies, toiletries, toys, a brand new pram and a baby bath filled the little office of Dora Nginza Hospital social worker Pamela Rubushe as staff were getting ready to send the newborn baby found in a stormwater drain in Lorraine to her new foster home.
Rubushe had been storing gifts – brought to the hospital by members of the public – before finding the little girl a foster home.
Four bags of gifts were donated by Herald readers and residents of Theescombe.
“It looks like we had a big baby shower for her,” Rubushe said.
“I am so grateful. She is so small and she clearly touched many people’s hearts.”
She said she wanted to thank Charmaine Keevy and Cornie Viljoen for rescuing the baby.
“I also want to thank social worker Thandi Smith who escorted me to the Piet-se-Bos informal settlement to look for the baby’s mom,” she said.
Rubushe also thanked everyone who had donated gifts to the little girl, from employees at Dora Nginza Hospital to staff at Mawethu Civils.
She said one of the donors had come to the hospital with her own little girl. “She brought so many gifts for this little girl. It was like she was shopping for her own baby,” Rubushe said.
“She told me she wanted to do it for this child because she had been a baby in foster care too.”
The baby was taken to her new foster home yesterday.
Rubushe said she was still looking for the mother and other family members of the little girl. The baby’s health has improved since being found in the stormwater drain on April 3.
A criminal investigation is under way.
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