During this year, 13 abandoned babies

Meanwhile, seven of them have joined the biological parent in all cases with fathers, since mothers have decided to abandon them.

Five of them have remained in the Neonatology Clinic, from which, according to procedures, they are provided a “new home” to live in.

Currently, there is only one baby left in this clinic, waiting to find a home.

In the absence of a mother, the first embrace after abandoning, these babies are given by nurse Luce Yusuf, the chief nurse in the abandoned children's department.

She has been working at this clinic for 40 years now. Speaking to Radio Free Europe, it shows that the number of babies left year-on-year is marking decline.

We get emotionally attached to these kids because the first contact with these kids is us. Mothers usually don't want to see, obviously those who decide to abandon them. We and moms don't meet, when they break up with babies, mothers get social workers. We only care about babies”, it shows.

Nurse Lushe says there is a lack of staff to care for abandoned babies for years. But it points to the fact that the practice of abandoning babies from their mothers is becoming increasingly rare compared with previous years.

And we have some good conditions, but there are very few staff who care about these kids. But after the number of mothers leaving them has dropped, we are doing well. Milk formula is provided by the central medicine until the clothes are provided as donations, or even other mothers born here, donate them to abandoned babies”, Yusuf says.

Neonatology Clinic Director Jevdet Goynovci has explained that babies abandoned in this department can stay there until 28 days after birth, but, according to him, there are more specific cases when babies are sick and that until complete recovery are treated in Neonatology.

It shows that in addition to mothers born at the gyneecological Clinic at the University Clinical Centre in Kosovo, even in cases when babies are abandoned on the ground outside KKUK, police or officials from the Ministry of Labour and Social Management bring them to this clinic.

“In the Neonatology Clinic, there is an admission department from outside babies and social cases. Twelve cases of abandoned babies have been addressed in our clinic this year. Seven of them have already joined biological fathers, through social workers. The rest of babies are housed in the family or Sos-kinderdorf. Cases on the ground, usually police or social workers take them to our clinic first, and we do extensive checks”.

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Otherwise, based on the annual report by the Department of Social Policy and Family at the Ministry of Labour and Social Management during 2017, 34 children have been abandoned throughout the territory of the Republic of Kosovo. Meanwhile, based on the six - month Report of 2018, 13 cases of abandoned children have been recorded.

Among the main causes these young mothers abandon their children are said to be social and economic conditions, but the differences between the couple and the girls ' families are also said to be the social and economic conditions.