Fast Confession - BabyBox founder Ludvík Hess: The most fundamental right is the right to live
Life is the most precious gift we've received from our parents. Whatever your childhood might have been like, many of us were not denied the chance to grow up, learn and freely make choices. The sad thing is that such a chance at life is not a guarantee. That's why Ludvík Hess, an author, publicist, poet and horse breeder decided to set up baby boxes. Thanks to them, 200 children have been given a new chance at life, particularly 111 girls and 89 boys. But before the first "emergency hatch for children" could be established in Hloubětín in 2005, Ludvík had to undergo a long and tasking journey.
As of now, 200 children have been given a chance at life thanks to baby boxes. How does that make you feel?
After 200 children, I am not as affected by it as I was at the beginning. But it makes me happy, of course, it's good news.
You pick the names for the foundlings. What influences your decisions?
Off the top of your head, how do you think a girl who'd hypothetically be found right now would be named?
I don't know, would you name her after me?
Absolutely! She'd be named Nela!
So you choose names based on who you're presently having coffee with?
Yes, you could say that. Of course I can't be having coffee with a mortal enemy, I have to like that person and have a good feeling about them.
Do you meet with the found children as they're growing up?
Yes, I do meet with some of them. Just the other day I'd been introducing a baby box in Frýdek-Místek and two children came to meet me there. Their parents had notified me beforehand and I took a photo with them and made a New Year's card. It was very nice.
What is the leading cause of mothers abandoning their children?
I think that there are many reasons, but primarily social and family reasons. I know stories where the significant other does not want the child, so the mother appeases them by abandoning the baby. With others it can, of course, also be hatred or disdain for the child. I had the opportunity to talk to a number of mothers though, and usually the aforementioned reasons were the most prevalent ones.
What time of day do people most commonly abandon children?
Usually in the afternoon.
You see, I'd have expected you to say something around the lines of midnight and later...
No, not by fair. It happens normally during daylight hours.
What's the journey that a baby undertakes from the baby box?
First to the hospital where they receive a basic health checkup. If everything's going well, the hospital reports their existence to the appropriate office for the social and legal protection of children and it then proposes that custody court place the child in foster care. And so on and so forth...
Do you think that when an abandoned child grows up, it has a substantial effect on their psyche?
Look, every child should have the right to know their parents from birth, according to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. But I can guarantee you that only in the Czech Republic there are hundreds of thousands of children who do not know who their parents are. The most common reason is that the mother conceives a child with somebody else, so the child does not know their father, but a different man. The second most common alternative is that the mother conceives a child, but stops liking the father and doesn't feature him in the birth certificate. There are many variants.
There are, however, also cases when children get terrible adoptive parents and aren't happy. But the more common and likely is the reality in which the adoptive parents, when they finally get the chance to adopt a child after so many years of waiting, try to make his or her life as good as possible.
I don't deny that it can happen that a child will be a disappointment for his or her adoptive parents. I know a little girl from a baby box that I'd take home in an instant, but there are kids I wouldn't want to take home. Among other things I am also a horse breeder, and I know that if I bred a male and a female donkey, it would never yield an English thoroughbred. Even if I trained it and fed it and created the best living conditions for it. It'd never win a derby.
What led you to the establishment of baby boxes?
Throughout all of society's existence it's been common to help the weak and helpless. And children are the weakest and the most helpless. Abandoning children has been a thing since ancient Rome. People have been abandoning children throughout all of our history, it just wasn't done via a thing called baby boxes, but "baby wheels" for example, which were actually containers in the walls of monasteries where mothers could deposit their unwanted children. I had the opportunity to study the history of child abandonment and I fond out that in the mid-eighteenth century, up to 8 thousand children were abandoned in Paris each year.
Was it very difficult to push for baby boxes in the Czech Republic?
Very, very difficult. When I first presented the idea, I also gained my worst enemy, the then health minister Milada Emmerová. She published a press release citing that the founding of a baby box is against the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 7 of which states that every child has the right to know their parents at birth. But she didn't bring up Article 6, which states that the most fundamental right is the right to live. Her press release also contained the information that the baby boxes will serve for the abandonment of the children of foreign laborers, forcing the Czech state to take care of them.
The General University Hospital and the Police also weren't in favor of establishing my idea. It really was a long and complicated journey. At first I wanted to create the first baby box at the Maternity Hospital Apolinář, but since many people were against it, I opened it in 2005 at Hloubětín Castle at my friends' and at the same time owners of a private gynecology clinic.
Can you remember a particular life story that's really stuck in your memory?
I can. One mom came to me, saying she'd like her child back. I helped her and offered her accommodation at my place. And that was a mistake. Alongside baby boxes I also run shelters in Prague 10. I entered this woman there along with her child, but after some time she began to destroy all of the things inside the flat, she drank a lot of alcohol and also began assaulting me physically. During a mere few minutes she was able to throw everything within her reach at me. Once she'd run out of things, she went to the next room, grabbed a clothes iron and threw it at me with all her might. It was terrible.
You didn't defend yourself at all?
You know what'd have happened if I had? Can you imagine what it would cause? If this woman had gone to see a doctor with a single bruise and said that the nice "baby grandpa" who takes care of children and helps women in need had assaulted her... In an instant I would not be the nice grandpa anymore. I had to call the city police first, who told me that this case was beyond their authority. And then, when the state police arrived, she fled along with the child.
You haven't seen her since?
I haven't. Nonetheless, Nela, that was the worst experience of my life. And I'll admit that it wasn't that long ago. I honestly feel sorry for her daughter.
How much does a single baby box cost?
About 300 thousand crowns along with the installation. There are two types of baby boxes, actually. The original ones were rather basic, but there are only 18 of those left these days. I spent a long time looking for somebody who could fulfill my requirements that I was unwilling to budge on. Look at it this way, when sunlight shines on the box all day in summer, the temperature inside can reach up to eighty degrees without air conditioning.
