This is a 'baby box' installed in the wall of the maternity hospital of the southern Russian city of Sochi.

Parents who want to abandon their child can anonymously leave the unwanted baby in a safe, sanitary, and temperature-controlled space which locks on the outside and is monitored by the hospital.

(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) DEPUTY HEAD SOCHI MATERNITY WARD, HOSPITAL NO. 9, NATALIA GORISYUK, SAYING:

"A fund called 'Seven-Petal Flower' was created and it paid for installation of baby boxes across the Krasnodar region. This indeed is a situation when a child has a chance to remain alive and healthy."

Over 100 babies are abandoned in Sochi every year, and three 'baby boxes' have been installed across the city.

(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) YOUNG MOTHER OLGA FEDORENKO, SAYING:

"It is now difficult to accuse those women, because the state policy may have affected them, husbands also may have abandoned them. So everyone has their own unique psychological feeling. It's difficult."

Since being opened in November 2011, one baby was safely abandoned at the end of November, aged around two weeks.

According to city health officials she was adopted by a local family in December.

The 'baby box' project is expected to set up similar schemes in other cities around Russia.

Nick Rowlands, Reuters.