China has been rolling out  safe havens, little shelters, where parents can abandon their child without fear of facing charges or revealing their identity.  At Guangzhou’s first safe haven,  51 children were abandoned in the first 13 days of operation, according to China Daily.

Not all the children were babies. Some were 5 and 6 years old. But all of the children were critically ill or disabled.

There’s been a lot of controversy about the program, as some feel it will just become a dumping ground. And already the number of abandoned children has exceeded the estimate by government officials.

While it may seem cruel for parents to abandon their children, and we have no way of knowing why they’re abandoning their children, it beats the alternative. I adopted my daughter from China in 2005. She was abandoned in a park. Fortunately she didn’t join the 70-million girls who met a worser fate.

China has a huge social issue that needs to be addressed.

Photo Courtesy: Xinhua