Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Mereseini Vuniwaqa is calling on mothers to reach out for assistance.

She said this while confirming that the baby whose body was found inside a bus in Wainibokasi had been buried by her ministry earlier last month.

“This is really a call to mothers out there especially to the expecting mothers,” she said.

“If they are hiding their pregnancy from their parents or giving birth outside the hospitals, we need to let those mothers know there is a support system out here.

“There is a support system in Government which can look after the children.”

Ms Vuniwaqa said there were options available for single mothers.

“They can give birth to a child and give the child for adoption or leave the child in the hospital if this is the kind of issues they are going through.

“But we need to get away with this social stigma about single motherhood, which has driven the women to these kind of things.”

Ms Vuniwaqa said the mothers could talk to her ministry and that there were NGOs that could give support to women.