Organization for the Support of Albania’s Abandoned Babies (OSAAB) is a U.S. registered Non Profit 501 ©(3) Organization, as well as an Albania registered Non Governmental Organization (NGO), created in 1996 with a mission to provide care to abandoned babies in Albania, as well as provide health education training to medical staff and new and expectant mothers. The program works cooperatively and
in conjunction with the Queen Geraldine University Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Tirana, Albania. OSAAB works with the maternity hospital to raise awareness within Albania of the “safe haven” existing within the maternity hospital for women with unwanted pregnancies. These efforts have resulted in annual decreases in the number of babies abandoned in the streets, or in the hospital, where the identity of the birth mother is not known. On average babies remain in the maternity hospital for the first 2-3 months of their life prior to being moved to an orphanage to await adoption. Since the program began in 1996, 685 abandoned babies have been provided care by OSAAB while they remain in the maternity hospital. In April 1999, during the Kosovo refugee crisis, OSAAB provided direct support to over 700 newborn infants and mothers in both maternity hospitals in Tirana. OSAAB nor the maternity hospital are involved with the adoption of the babies but merely ensure that while the babies remain in the maternity hospital they receive all the love, care and medical attention required in a newborn infants life.
