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南非婴儿箱挽救弃婴生命

Every day, three babies, on average, are abandoned in Johannesburg alone. They are thrown into dumpsters and left for dead - often by desperate mothers who can't afford to raise them. Now, a local NGO called Door of Hope has opened what it calls a "baby bin¹." It allows mothers to leave their babies and know they will be taken care of.

南非每天都有婴儿被遗弃，仅在约翰内斯堡，每天平均就有三个弃婴。无钱抚养婴儿的母亲常常把他们扔进垃圾箱。现在， 当地的一个非官方组织“希望之门”设立了一个所谓的“婴儿箱”，母亲们可以把婴儿送到那里。

In a small street in Berea, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Johannesburg, a trap door in a wall could be mistaken for a mailbox. But it's actually a place where mothers can safely leave their babies.

贝利亚是约翰内斯堡最贫困的社区之一。墙上的这个活板门看上去像个邮箱，其实是收留婴儿的地方，母亲们可以把婴儿安全地留在这里。

"Usually when they put the baby here, the mother who put the baby here, we have staff on duty there, we check in the camera, we see there is a baby, a staff member would come and fetch the baby," explained Francina Mphago.

“希望之门”的工作人员佛兰西纳 姆法果说：“当她们把婴儿放在这里的时候， 我们都有人值班， 我们有摄像头， 看得见有婴儿进来， 工作人员就会把他们抱回来。”

Francina Mphago says the bin has a mini-camera and a sensor². When a baby is put inside, a ringtone echoes³ in the organization's nursery, just a few meters behind the wall. Staff members can check the box on a computer screen.

佛兰西纳 姆法果说， 活板门上安装了微型相机和感应器，每当有人把婴儿放进来， 里面几米远的育婴室里就会响起铃声，工作人员就会去查看电脑。她说：“我们一听到铃响， 就会到这里来看一下电脑屏幕。”

The baby bin opened in 1999. At the time, desperate mothers were abandoning their babies in garbage cans, parks and in the streets of Johannesburg. Often it was too late to save them.

“婴儿箱“是1999年建立的， 当时一些绝望的母亲把婴儿丢到约翰内斯堡的垃圾箱里， 公园里和街道上。婴儿被发现的时候，已经太晚了，无法挽救他们的生命。

"I thought about it and wondered that if a woman wants to be anonymous⁴, how can I help her? And so I thought that if I put a box in that wall, that they could put it in there instead of putting it in another rubbish bin," said Cheryl Allen, Door of Hope's director.

希望之门的负责人雪梨.阿伦说：“我想，如果一个妇女想把孩子送走又不想让人知道， 我怎样才能帮助她们呢？ 我想如果在墙上装个箱子， 他们就会把孩子送来而不会把他们扔到垃圾箱里。”

Since it opened, the baby bin has received 148 infants. Some have been adopted locally or by families abroad.

婴儿箱建立以来，已经收留了148个婴儿。其中有些已被领养，领养他们的有当地的家庭，也有外国人。

Godwill and Nkhangwe Kekana have adopted two sisters from Door Of Hope. While in their case, they know the mother's name, they say the stigma⁵ around anonymously⁶ abandoned children needs to be addressed, for the children's sake.

戈德维尔和南格维.克卡纳从希望之门领养了两姐妹。他们知道两姊妹母亲的姓名。他们说， 领养被匿名母亲抛弃的婴儿，有些问题必须解决。

"I would prefer when the child grows, he knows his or her roots," Godwill stated. "But like I said, sometimes you don't know what really pushes the parents at that time to take that action.

养父戈德维尔.克卡纳说，“我更希望孩子们长大之后，知道自己的根。不过就像我说的， 有时候，你不知道他们的亲生父母为什么会抛弃他们。”

"I think the society must start teaching the children who are adopted, you know sometimes to not concentrate much on the roots. They might say 'ok I'm grown up, I'm 18 years old, I don't even know where I come from.' But they must appreciate that they had life," Nkhangwe added. "At least somebody took them in, and gave them life.

养母南格维.克卡纳说：“我认为社会必须对被领养的孩子们进行教育，有时候不必过于关注他们的身世，他们可能会说，‘OK,我已经长大了，18岁了，我不知道自己的身世’ ，但是他们必须对被领养心存感激， 至少有人收留了他们，给了他们生命。”

Baby bins⁷ exist in other parts of the world but have often been surrounded by controversy⁸. While some critics say they encourage women to abandon their babies.

世界其他地方也有“婴儿箱”。但婴儿箱也常常引起争议。 有些批评者说， 婴儿箱会鼓励妇女遗弃他们的孩子。

Allen disagrees. She said, "I think that it doesn't encourage abandonment because they are going to abandon it anyway. Because I think it's quite a decision to make to abandon your baby. I don't think it's an easy decision.

希望之门的负责人雪梨.阿伦说：“我认为，这不会鼓励抛弃，因为她们已经打算抛弃了。我认为，抛弃自己的孩子是一个很困难的决定。”

Over the years, other NGOs have followed Door of Hope and opened baby bins in other cities across South Africa.

多年来也有其他一些非官方组织效法希望之门，在南非的其他地方设立了婴儿箱。