A child has been left in an anonymous baby box for the first time since its introduction in Russia, Head of the Krasnodar Health Department Elena Redko said on Tuesday.
Administration of south Russia’s Krasnodar Territory purchased five so-called baby boxes in the beginning of November for mothers to anonymously drop off unwanted newborns. The first three have been installed in Sochi, Novorossiysk and Armavir. The move is aimed at providing sanitary conditions for unwanted children, rather than “having them left in garbage containers,” health officials said.
Redko said the girl is heathy and that the childcare officials will be notified about her as soon as possible. “This is normal procedure when dealing with abandoned children,” Redko added.
“The girl will be put into a children’s home but I think she will be adopted soon because we have fewer children in the region than families who want to have them,” Redko said.
The project will soon involve the Siberian cities of Perm, Tomsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk and the European Russian town of Kirov.
The tradition of anonymous abandonment has a long history in many countries, including Italy, The Czech Republic and France.
In Russia, Empress Catherine II was the first to open an orphanage and the Moscow establishment funded a maternity hospital for impoverished pregnant women.