Q: My daughter and son-in-law are attending a Valentine’s Ball for The Hope Box. Will you tell me about this organization?
A: The Hope Box focuses on addressing infant abandonment. They are headquartered in Kennesaw but work statewide.
THB was formed around the idea of placing a box at a hospital or fire station where a mom unable to parent could place her infant.
What Sarah Koeppen thought was a simple solution opened up Pandora’s box as she quickly learned of Georgia’s issues surrounding infant abandonment.
“When we started we soon realized that the 2002 Safe Haven law in Georgia allowed only hospitals to accept babies and up to 7 days after birth. Yet, some hospitals were still refusing the girls,” said Koeppen, founder and CEO of The Hope Box.
In a state filled with nationalities, immigrants and trafficking there is confusion on what to do during a crisis. Translation is key in the correct language for anyone needing our help, she stated.
“There is a lot of misunderstanding. We had a girl in Atlanta who killed her baby because she was convinced she was going to be stoned to death. She was raped and in her culture she was told that if she got pregnant out of wedlock she would be stoned to death. She didn’t understand that she lived on American soil,” the founder stated. “We really want to reach more of these communities to help them.
“We had a mom hand an infant to a police officer and got arrested for it in trying to do the right thing. We quickly realized we had to change that law,” said Koeppen. “We changed the Safe Haven law signing it in 2017. We added 30 days to give a mom more time and if she needs to enact this law we added fire and police.”
In rural Georgia EMS and fire are the same thing and often people confuse the two, she said. “EMS really wants to be added so we are working on that.”
The second area of abandonment falls into the sex trafficking of infants. “There’s a market for full-term infants. Girls are told by their parents that they can make a lot of money for their babies,” she stated. “We’ve been able to stop four infants from being sold with help from the courts.”
Koeppen said there are about 22,000 infants left in hospitals a year throughout the nation for a variety of reasons. Hospitals in Georgia call them “stuck” babies and with no parent representation they become state custody.
“This year we are partnering with hospitals. WellStar is one of our biggest partners and have partnered with the state. We’ve all come together to address this issue. We are calling it our Hospital to Home program. We want to see these statistics go down and infants bonding immediately with the family,” said the CEO.
“It’s not about whether or not you give up your infant, it’s about knowing you have hope and you have options,” she said. “We are here to come alongside and help you find that story.”
If in crisis, call the 24-hour hotline at 7 70-765-6301. For more information, visit: https://www.thehopebox.org/
New to Atlanta or simply have a question about this place we call home? Email your request to atlactualfact@gmail.com
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