What Is a Safe Haven and How Does it Protect Babies from Abandonment?

Stories of babies being abandoned by garbage areas or in fields are not new, but always heartbreaking. The truth is, many of these are avoidable. 

Your organization could be part of the solution. 

What is a Foundling?

A foundling is any child or adult whose parentage is unknown or undisclosed (in the case of parents or guardians surrendering the foundling infant to safe haven providers). 

What is a Safe Haven for Foundlings?

According to the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 11767, the Foundling Recognition and Protection Act, a safe haven is “a person, non-government or government facility charged with the custody of an infant or child.”

What Organizations are Considered Safe Havens?

Your organization may be considered a safe haven for foundling children. Here is the full list, below: 

• A licensed child-caring agency, often also known as a children’s home, or orphanage;

• A licensed child-placing agency, which processes adoption and foster care for families;

• A church, defined as “a place devoted to religious worship held with regularity”;

• Department of Health (DOH)-accredited health facilities, “including hospitals, infirmaries, city health offices, birthing homes, rural health units, lying-in clinics and barangay health stations”;

• A Local Social Welfare and Development Office (LSWDO); and

• DSWD-managed residential care facilities and LGU-managed residential care facilities.

What is the Purpose of a Safe Haven?

Shame and fear of criminal liability are strong social and legal reasons that might stop a parent from safely surrendering their baby. Some may believe that this will positively prevent a parent from giving up their child at all.

However, a parent at the point of desperation, or without the soundness of mind or body to care for the child, might end up leaving the baby in a public toilet, a hostel room, or a street corner. As the news outlets show, many do.

Safe havens provide a non-judgmental space for a desperate parent, and most importantly, safety for an infant who might otherwise be threatened by exposure, disease, attack, trafficking, or death. 

Who Can Approach a Safe Haven?

Any parent or guardian with an infant who is thirty days or younger can approach a safe haven provider to surrender the baby for care. They are not required to answer any questions about the infant’s parentage or medical history. Ideally, if they are the parents of the infant, a document to relinquish care should be signed. Any parent can sign the document (if the parent is alone).

Any finder (“a person of legal age who discovered the deserted or abandoned child”) of a possible foundling can approach a safe haven to surrender the baby or child for care. They should leave their contact information for the safe haven and government offices. The age limit of the infant (thirty days or younger) does not apply here. 

If Your Organization is a Safe Haven Provider, What Is Your Role?

According to Section 6 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations, the role of a safe haven provider is to (non-verbatim):

• Provide the child with appropriate care;

• Act as a temporary custodian for the child;

• Inform the surrendering parent that they are not required to answer questions about the child’s past or medical history;

• Confirm that the parent understands that they are relinquishing, or giving up, all parental rights to the child;

• Within forty-eight hours of receiving the child, inform the National Authority for Alternative Child Care through the local office (RACCO) that the organization has a possible foundling in its care. 

For any safe haven, it can be a worrying responsibility to care for a child, especially any infant below thirty days old. Every safe haven is only asked to respond to the best of their ability. The safe haven must also let the surrendering parent or finder know if it has the facilities or personnel to care for the child appropriately.

The law also provides safe haven provider with immunity from civil liability, as long as the organization “acts in good faith without gross negligence.”

As a Safe Haven Provider, How Can You Prepare to Accept Foundlings?

If your organization is a safe haven provider by law, how can you then prepare to receive infants in a way that they will receive appropriate care?

Prepare an Infant-Caring Kit

Our Pregnant Women in Crisis program provides new mothers with Mother and Baby Kits. You can prepare a similar kit for your own organization facility.

The kit may contain:

• 3 x clothes for newborns

• 3 x newborn pajamas

• 1 x baby bonnet

• 4 x mitten pairs

• 1 x towel

• 1 x towelette

• 1 x blanket with hoodie

• 1 x regular blanket

• 12 x newborn diapers

• 6 x adult diapers

• 4 x underlying pads

• 1 x 500 mL bottle of 70% alcohol solution

• 1 x 100 wipes

• 1 x big roll of cotton

• 1 x 100 mL bottle of baby shampoo

• 1 x small bar of baby soap

• 1 x 50 mL bottle of baby oil

License a Staff Member or Volunteer as a Foster Parent

Consider having a staff member or volunteer licensed as a foster parent. Foster parents hold a three-year license to provide temporary care for children who are placed with them. A licensed foster parent on staff can legally provide extended care for the infant through the help of the regional NACC office (RACCO). 

The first step to being licensed as a foster parent is a foster care forum. You can connect with your local RACCO, or email us at connect@generationshome.org to know the next Foster Care Forum schedule. 

Protect Babies from Abandonment

If you are a safe haven provider, by law, you are already part of the child protection space. 

It may seem easier to redirect a parent or finder to another provider whom you believe has the capability of care. However, a desperate parent may not make it to the next safe haven. A finder who discovers a child in an advanced state of abandonment or exposure needs all the help they can get. 

Your organization is already part of this space. To rescue babies from abandonment or worse, it is the responsibility of every safe haven provider to prepare both their facilities and personnel to receive a child in need.

What You Can Do Now: Stop the Orphan Crisis Before it Begins

When pregnant mothers at risk of abandoning, neglecting, or trafficking their children are supported and empowered, the danger of the child being abandoned or trafficked drops drastically. Parents do not need to reach the point of desperation, and their children never need to be at risk of abandonment or worse.

Our Pregnant Women In Crisis program provides vulnerable mothers with counseling, financial support for medical bills until birth, and a mother-and-baby kit as well as postnatal care until a month after the birth. 

When mothers experience compassion, understanding, and tangible support, over 70 percent choose to parent their newborn children. The remaining 30 percent have clarity about their decision, and safely and legally surrender their babies for adoption or foster care. 

You can learn more about what we do for vulnerable pregnant mothers here. To partner with us, please email connect@generationshome.org.