On 3 May, 2015, the first ‘baby box’, a special container designed to hold an abandoned baby, was installed in Kirov thanks to the efforts of Grzegorz Zwolinski, a local Catholic priest. Four days later, the public prosecutor’s office closed it.
The ‘boxes’ are heated incubators, which sound an alarm to the police and social services a minute after a baby is placed there. The mother can reclaim the baby within six months if she changes her mind; otherwise it is put up for adoption. In Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and other Catholic countries, these ‘windows of life’ are to be found almost everywhere, and since 2012, 20 of these boxes have been opened in Russia. In four years, these boxes have saved the lives of at least 35 babies, five of whom were later reclaimed by their birth mothers.
In Kirov, though, following the attention of the regional prosecutor, the Children’s Ombudsman, and the All-Russian Parental Resistance group, Father Grzegorz has not been allowed to continue this work.
