A modern "baby hatch" is saving hundreds babies from
certain death by convincing their mothers not to have an abortion. About 160
babies were saved this way in 2013.
The shelter is located
in Pasig, one of the most densely populated cities in Metro Manila, operating
thanks to funds donated by generous benefactors and the work of volunteer physicians,
psychologists, nurses and support staff.
The service has
been up and running since 2009, focusing primarily on young women from poor
villages from the Visayan Islands.
Shelter director
Rey Ortega said that his organisation welcomes women with unwanted pregnancies,
providing them with help and a promise to take care of their children once they
are born.
For Ortega, most
of the young women who come to the shelter are little more than teenagers, many
of them with economic problems.
However, some
are university undergraduates or even graduates who do odd jobs as domestic helpers
or maids to make ends meet.
Once they find
out that they are pregnant, the young women are often afraid of how their
families might react, and thus face alone the dilemma of whether to have the
child or have an abortion.