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A Chance for the Unwanted

The citizens association A Chance for Unwanted was founded with the aim to avoid the senseless killing of unwanted newborn babies and to offer a real possibility as to how to prevent such tragedies. Therefore, the already known Nests of Rescue were installed that are, however, still at the beginning of the programme of the rescue of unwanted babies.

The citizens association gradually succeeded in initiating the required legislative changes in order to create the nonstop Nest of Rescue telephone service and issue its own revue Šanca (Chance). It is presently finishing works on the Embrace of Rescue – a social service centre where mothers, who otherwise would be forced to abandon their child, can find their home. The Embrace of Rescue is a new type of establishment that creates the right conditions for the active social inclusion of these women and offers untraditional three-generation integration – of mothers, their children and seniors.

Sad balance at the beginning
The impulse for the foundation of the citizens association, Chance for Unwanted, in June 2004 were the mounting reports on cases of dead newborn babies – up to ten babies were killed every year. The solution was the Nest of Rescue, public incubator connected through a signalling device to the neonatal department in the hospital. No woman who hides her pregnancy and fears being found out via the birth of her newborn baby, does not need to hurt, or at worst kill, her baby by rash conduct while overcome with fear.

From 2004–2007, with financial support from sponsors, an entire network of the Nests of Rescue, installed at hospitals in 13 locations throughout Slovakia, was established. „They rescued eighteen unwanted babies and helped to decrease the terrifying annual statistics of killed newborn babies from ten to two“, the author of the idea for the Nests of Rescue and president of the citizens association A Chance for Unwanted, Anna Ghannamova, recapitulates.

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NESTS OF RESCUE ARE SITUATED AT THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS:

Bratislava-Kramáre
Prešov
Žilina
Banská Bystrica
Nitra
Trnava
Nové Zámky Bratislava-Petržalka
Ružomberok
Košice
Rožňava
Spišská Nová Ves
Dolný Kubín

Help by telephone and concealed births
In the second line of the programme of the rescue of unwanted babies, advice was provided to those women in crisis wherein legislative changes were also initiated. One of the efficient instruments utilised is the nonstop Nests of Rescue telephone service, the aim of which is to empower women in crisis to anonymously obtain exact, comprehensive information as to how they can rescue a baby that they cannot afford to keep.

Such a woman is not prosecuted for having left her child with the Nest of Rescue. Another legislative change that the citizens association was able to achieve was the legalisation of secret births at the hospital. Women who are unable to keep their baby for various reasons and do not want their pregnancy to be disclosed, can apply for a secret birth at any maternity hospital, without any indication whatsoever of their personal data.

Under the secret birth scheme, a child is not left for an excessively long period without close persons in his or her immediate surroundings, which would, without this closeness, have a negative impact on his or her development. Therefore, this stage was entitled Cradle of Rescue. After birth, the child is automatically and immediately put up for adoption and thereby his or her mother has given them a chance to experience a happy family life with the adoptive parents from infancy onwards.

Nonstop Nests of Rescue telephone service 0905 888 234

Shared home in the Embrace of Rescue
Nearly one-third of these women would consider not giving up their babies if they were just given the chance to find a roof over their head and helping hand to start their new life in a location far from their partner or family who had not accepted them with the newborn baby and hence abandoned them, emotionally and often physically.

The mutual emotional alliance and motivation are equally important for women and children who have found themselves without the support of their closest persons and for seniors who see their relatives only sporadically and feel abandoned and without purpose.

The director of the Centre, Anna Ghannamova, describes the strategy of help: “We will not only offer women at the shelter help, advice and preparation for responsible parentage, but also actual work in the framework of senior care. We intend to engage them, as nurses, accountants or auxiliary staff. We plan to retain them as well, so that they take pains to improve the quality of their life and start to live an independent and responsible life once they have left the Embrace of Rescue”.

Number of the account where donations can be sent in order to help abandoned mothers and children: 1905668157/0200

More info: www.sancaoz.sk