Bankrupt Cambridge adpotion agency had ties to suspect African orphanage

By Brian Caldwell

News
Jul 17, 2009

Tell a friend CAMBRIDGE -- An orphanage in Ghana run by an Ontario charity has been shut down over concerns that children were taken from their parents for international adoption.
"Some of the parents were not aware, some of the children were actually not orphans and so on," said Stephen Adongo, acting director of social work in the African country.

"We found out that some of the parents didn't understand why their children were taken away, why the children should be in school. They were not told the facts, so we viewed that seriously."

Located near Accra, Ghana, the orphanage is run by Hands of Mercy Christian Outreach International, a non-profit group based in Fort Erie.

Problems there came to light after the collapse this week of Cambridge-based Kids Link International Adoption Agency, which operated under the name Imagine Adoption.

Imagine was working with the Ghana orphanage to arrange adoptions by Canadian families who had invested $20,000 or more to get children.

Up to 450 families across the country were stunned when Imagine filed for bankruptcy amid concerns senior staff members, including executive director Susan Hayhow, had unusually high expense claims.

At various stages of the lengthy, costly international adoption process -- mostly involving children from Ethiopia -- the families are now in limbo while bankruptcy trustees and government officials try to sort out the situation.

About 30 families had reached the point where they were matched with a child while waiting for adoptions to be legally completed.

Nine of those children were at the Ghana orphanage, one of four run by the husband-and-wife team behind Hands of Mercy.

Those adoptions have been on hold since allegations about the orphanage surfaced three months ago.

Adongo said Ghana was already reviewing orphanages in the country when he was alerted by the Canadian High Commission to concerns about possible child trafficking at the Hands of Mercy facility.

An investigation by Ghana officials didn't turn up evidence of children at the home being bought and sold for a profit or exploitation.

Adongo said they determined, however, that at least three children slated for overseas adoptions had been taken away from their parents.

"The orphanage sent people around to bring (children) to the place," he said in an interview yesterday.

Adongo said all adoptions through the orphanage were suspended and it was recently ordered to shut down by the Ghana government. No improper adoptions went ahead.

"We intervened at that time so they couldn't continue," he said.

Karen Shadd, a spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said the Canadian government also suspended adoptions from the orphanage after trafficking suspicions were raised.

"It's not something that we see a lot of," she said.

Deborah MacQuarrie, an evangelical Christian minister who runs Hands of Mercy with her husband, Max, from their Fort Erie home, denied doing anything wrong. She said the couple has been working since 1999 to help needy children abroad as a religious mission.

"We're a ministry," MacQuarrie said. "We serve God. We teach the children about God. We take kids who are dying and we bring them in and we love them and we give them everything we can give them."

She blamed improper placements at the Ghana orphanage on a local staff member who got fired for bringing in members of his extended family.

MacQuarrie also denied the home has been shut down, with about 100 children still living there, and said the investigation by Ghana officials cleared it of serious wrongdoing.

She said the group worked with an American agency to arrange about six adoptions -- with eight others underway -- and didn't have any problems.

"God has put it in our hearts to help these children," MacQuarrie said. "If you go onto our (website), you'll see the kids are all happy, healthy and everything is wonderful."

Adongo said the Ghana investigation didn't directly involve Imagine Adoption, which began working with the orphanage last year.

Bankruptcy trustees are still sorting through Imagine's finances and working with governments officials to see if proper adoptions that had reached the match stage can be completed.

Volunteer directors of the non-profit group grew worried about a month ago after noting questionable expenses, including leased luxury vehicles.

Verslag bezoek aan Haiti van 9 tot 12 Juli

Maison l`Esperance

Zoals u weet is Maison l´Esperance onlangs verhuisd. Het nieuwe tehuis ligt in een rustige buitenwijk naast een ziekenhuis. Het huis is ruim en ligt op een groot terrein met veel bomen, het is een aflopend terrein, beneden stroomt een riviertje. Mevr. Cecile Gabathuler woont in een huis dat direct naast het kindertehuis ligt, hierin is ook het kantoor gevestigd. Verder is er een apart gastenverblijf gebouwd, met 2 ruime kamers met elk een eigen badkamer. In het huis van Cecile is nog een gastenverblijf. Deze kamers voor de gasten zijn nog niet klaar voor gebruik. Er moet nog van alles afgebouwd en ingericht worden. Mevrouw Cecile Gabathuler wil de mogelijkheid bieden aan de adoptief ouder(s) om hier te logeren als zij hun kind ophalen. Ook kunnen geadopteerde kinderen, die terugkomen om het land te leren kennen of om hun biologische familie te ontmoeten hier verblijven en eventueel meehelpen in het tehuis. Het kindertehuis bestaat uit 3 verdiepingen, iedere verdieping heeft een aantal slaapzalen en ruime badkamers. De arts en verpleegsters hebben een eigen spreekkamer. Beneden is de keuken, de voorraadkamer en de kamers voor opslag van bijvoorbeeld schoolmateriaal en kleertjes. Op het grote balkon wordt de was gedaan en hangen of liggen de kleertjes te drogen. Op dit moment is de water- en elektriciteitsvoorziening onvoldoende. Er moet water worden ingekocht, een waterauto vult de watertanks bij. Voor de elektriciteit is een generator nodig, het gewone lichtnet functioneert regelmatig niet, de generator heeft onvoldoende capaciteit voor dit grote huis.

De kinderen

Er zijn op dit moment ruim 130 kinderen opgenomen in het tehuis. De conditie waarin de kinderen worden opgenomen is slecht. Ondervoeding en verwaarlozing is voor de maatschappelijk werkster de belangrijkste reden om een kind op te nemen. Maison l´Esperance biedt de kinderen letterlijk een overlevingskans. Als de moeder in zeer slechte conditie is kan ook zij tijdelijk in huis worden opgenomen, waar zij de mogelijkheid krijgt aan te sterken. Op de baby afdeling ligt alle aandacht dan ook op de voeding en de verzorging. Kinderen liggen in hun eigen bedjes of worden op de grond gelegd als ze al kunnen zitten of kruipen. De verzorgsters geven de kinderen één voor één de fles. De aandacht die er wordt gegeven aan voeding werpt zijn vruchten af : het is bijzonder om te zien hoe goed en gezond de oudere kinderen er uit zien. Deze oudere kinderen zijn onderverdeeld in 2 groepen naar leeftijd. De oudste kinderen slapen op de bovenste etage. De activiteiten voor deze kinderen vinden buiten plaats in de schaduw van een boom. De verzorgsters maken de mooiste creaties van de haren van de meisjes, ook dit gebeurt buiten. En er wordt volop gerend en gespeeld met de speeltoestellen die er in de tuin staan. (schommels, klimhuisjes).

More and more Westerners want to adopt children, while the Third World offers fewer and fewer children for adoption. Therefore, the need to control the adoption market is growing so that children do not end up as a commodity

By Lars Henriksen and Henrik Hoffmann-Hansen

The Danish adoption system needs a major overhaul. In particular, the possibilities for controlling adoption organizations and orphanages must be looked into more closely.

That demand comes from several sides, after Danmarks Radio has revealed, among other things, the sale of adopted children from India. Yesterday, the revelations caused family and consumer affairs minister Carina Christensen (K) to temporarily stop new adoptions from the country. Yesterday she had a long-planned meeting with the adoption organisations, who want the adoption rules adjusted in several areas.

The demand for better control comes, among other things, from Adoption & Society, an independent, advisory association for adoptive parents and adoptees.

Sarah Johnson

Click to listen to the forum (mp3)

"...Every child has the right to grow up in a loving family or a family replacing situation." The UN Treaty of the rights of the child

But recent reports in the Dutch press show that there is a decidedly darker side to the system.

Google translation

Ethiopia: Mission Assessor Valdegamberi

03/07/2007

Regione Veneto - press release. The commissioner for social policies of the Veneto, Stefano Valdegamberi met in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian government's Justice Minister Assefa Kessi, as part of the mission "Veneto adoption."

The commissioner for social policies of Veneto Stefano Valdegamberi met in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian government's Justice Minister Assefa Kessi, as part of the mission "Veneto adoption", which involves a delegation from the Veneto in Ethiopia with the aim of supporting the activities entities authorized international adoption.

Baby's for Sale FOR SALE

International adoption is surrounded by scandals. This month, three incidents hit the media. They do not stand on their own. Children are a commodity ....

By Margreet Vermeulen July 2, 2007, 0:00 AM

They are called kangaroo mothers in Guatemala. Women who give birth to children for export. They receive 600 to 1,600 dollars per child. The adoptive parents, mostly North Americans, pay around 30 thousand dollars. The difference disappears in the pockets of notaries, baby brokers, children's homes, lawyers and "fattening-houses" where pregnancy and childbirth are supervised.

These are mala fide practices that the Guatemalan government is now openly admitting and trying to combat. Of every one hundred Guatemalan babies born, one now grows up in North America in an adoptive family.

Entretien avec Marlene Hofstetter

© UNICEF Haïti/ 2007/ Brizard

Marlene Hofstetter travaille avec l'ONG Terre des Hommes dans le domaine de l'Adoption internationale depuis une vingtaine d'années. Elle a également participé avec l'UNICEF à plusieurs missions sur le sujet en Moldavie, Népal et Haïti. Elle est l'auteur avec Fernando Freire d'une évaluation rapide sur l'adoption internationale en Haïti publiée en 2005, sur une demande conjointe de l'UNICEF et de Terre des Hommes.

Par Patrice Brizard

« La mission présente est la suite logique de l'évaluation réalisée à l'été 2005 qui faisait un constat douloureux sur la situation de l'adoption en Haïti, pointant les insuffisances, les disfonctionnements et les abus qu'a permis la loi sur l'adoption du 4 avril 1974 » affirme Marlene. A la suite de la restitution de cette évaluation, en décembre 2006, la nouvelle directrice de l'Institut du Bien Etre Social et des Recherches (IBESR), Gabrielle P. Beaudin, « a bien activé les choses » pour réviser la loi sur l'adoption en Haïti et établir de nouvelles procédures administratives qui répondent aux normes et standards internationaux de protection de l'enfant. « Mes différents séjours en Haïti, ces derniers mois, avaient pour but de contribuer, en tant qu'experte, à l'élaboration du projet de loi, sur initiative de l'BESR en collaboration avec l'UNICEF » précise Marlene.

Discovered and printed out : October 2007

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