YOUNG
mothers in East New Britain are selling
new-born babies cheaply at the Kokopo market for money to sustain their daily
needs, The National reports.
Kokopo town
mayor Albert Buanga revealed this yesterday after receiving two cases in which
two young women, aged in their early to mid-20s, sold their infants to a local
family.
Buanga said
the young mothers were single and had wanted to discard their unwanted babies
by selling them cheaply for cash.
This, he
said, was illegal and against Christian teachings and principles.
According
to the mayor, the transaction of cash sale for the babies had been between K100
and K150 which, he added, was a cheap and fast way of getting rid of the
infants.
Buanga
condemned this type of business which he described as immoral and portrayed
total disrespect for the souls of the newborns.
A senior
welfare officer interviewed regarding the issue also condemned the act by the
young women.
“Lives
cannot be sold as a commodity; biblically it is wrong.
“It is bad
for society and labels the society as corrupt,” he said.
Babies, he
said, should not be victimised in such a way.
He said
children’s lives should be protected and not commercialised.
The officer
urged the division of community development in the province to seriously look
into the matter and address it promptly.
He said
awareness on unwanted pregnancies should be conducted immediately.
“In this
way, young mothers and women will know that there are procedures involved if
they are unable to care for their children,” he said.
The police
sexual offences squad in Kokopo also confirmed the reports, saying that the
first case was reported earlier this year.
The case
involved a young mother who sold her newborn baby for K500 to a family from
Bitavavar village in the Kokopo-Vunamami urban LLG.
Police
intervened and told the family to return the baby or make legal arrangements
through the civil court for adoption.
Several
mothers The National spoke to at the new Kokopo market confirmed that they had
seen two young women with the infants at the market just before midday
yesterday.
They had
informed other women that they were selling the infants for prices ranging
between K100 and K150.
The
community development office in Kokopo could not comment on the matter as
officers were awaiting direction from the office of the director of child
welfare and protection services in Port
Moresby .
Meanwhile,
Buanga had appealed to the public to report any persons selling babies to the
urban town authority or the welfare section of the community development
office.
Please the government should upgrade and extend the child welfare organisation to cater for such matter. Those children living with unreliable parents should be allocated to foster care home. The organisation should be paying foster care provider for the child.
ReplyDeletethe community development team should make awareness to the public in both urban and rural areas about family planing to avoid unwanted pregnancies and commercializing human being especially innocence infant babies.