In the quiet corners of Botswana’s towns and villages, children of all ages constantly find themselves out in the cold.
Some are found thrown by the roadsides, others in the bushes, while yet others grow up in homes where neglect has slowly done its damage, out of sight until it is too late.
What was once an occasional shock has become a pattern. Child abandonment, particularly of newborns is emerging as a silent crisis, revealing the fragile intersections between youth behaviour, weakened family structures and the absence of preventative support within communities.
Tshidilo Stimulation Centre manager, Mr Ramoremi Mphothwe says these stories rarely begin with abandonment, rather they begin much earlier in moments where guidance is absent and risk is normalised.
Alcohol-fuelled social spaces, he explains, often lead to unprotected sexual encounters and unintended pregnancies and when reality sets in, young women are left isolated, overwhelmed and afraid.
“Child abandonment is not a sudden decision but a final step after many opportunities to intervene have already been missed,” he says.
Those missed opportunities surface daily at the Maun Police Station. Behind the front desk, the crisis does not announce itself dramatically, it arrives quietly case by case, file by file. Between 2024 and 2025, police in Maun recorded 44 cases of child neglect, involving children as young as newborns and as old as 15.
Many of those cases are still unresolved, not because they are unimportant but because the systems meant to protect children often move slower than expected.
Thirty of the cases remain stalled, awaiting social inquiry reports and others sit under investigation, complicated by silence from those who report them but cannot or will not help police trace those responsible.
Maun Station Commander, Superintendent Joseph Lepodise says repeated offenders remain one of the most troubling aspects of the trend, pointing to cycles of neglect that continue long after the first warning signs are visible.
During this period in 2025, two newborns were abandoned in circumstances that officers still recall vividly, with one having been thrown into the bush and another who was left beside the road, wrapped in plastic.
In both cases, police responded immediately, rushing the infants to Letsholathebe II Memorial Hospital, a race against time to ensure that life continued where it had nearly been discarded.
Despite investigations that included tracing mothers who had recently given birth at surrounding clinics, no arrests were made. Responsibility for the children shifted instead to social workers, who placed them in safety while the search for accountability faded into uncertainty.
For Superintendent Lepodise, these outcomes are painful reminders that law enforcement often arrives at the end of the story, not at the beginning. Police, he says, continue to prioritise public education, urging parents and young girls to use available forms of pregnancy prevention and to seek help when overwhelmed.
Clinics, social workers, and police stations remain open doors; safer than the irreversible choice of abandonment, he stresses. The long-term impact of those choices becomes visible at care facilities like Lorato House.
Case manager at Lorato House, Ms Omphile Itomeng says children entering the facility often arrive after prolonged neglect or abandonment
Many carry physical signs of deprivation – malnutrition, delayed development, untreated medical conditions, weakened immunity and others carry wounds that cannot be weighed or measured.
“These children struggle to trust, and to feel safe,” she says.
Lorato House communications and media relations lead, Ms Agatha Elijah says as they grow older, the questions become harder to avoid and curiosity about home and belonging emerges naturally.
Counsellors respond by building stability first following routine, consistency, and nurturing relationships before attempting to help children process the circumstances of their abandonment.
Beyond its emotional and social cost, child abandonment in Botswana remains a criminal offence as the law prohibits neglect, ill-treatment, or exposure of a child to conditions likely to cause physical, psychological, or emotional harm
Penalties include fines or imprisonment, reinforcing the state’s position that abandonment is both morally indefensible and legally punishable. Yet those working closest to the issue agree that punishment alone will never be enough.
Prevention through education, early intervention, honest conversations about alcohol abuse and sexual health remains the strongest defense.
Facilities such as Lorato House also advocate for lawful alternatives like the Safe Haven Law, offering overwhelmed parents a way to protect their children without erasing their futures
Without collective action from families, communities, educators, social services, and government institutions, the cycle will continue. And somewhere, quietly, another child will be left behind waiting not just to be found, but to be chosen
