HANCI not receiving funds from foster parents’ - Director clarifies.
20 October 2009
HANCI not receiving funds from foster parents’ - Director clarifies.
20 Oct 2009
The Executive Director of Help A Needy Child International (HANCI), Dr. Roland F. Kargbo over the weekend refuted a front page story in a local tabloid headlined "180 Sierra Leoneans illegally adopted in the USA." He enlightened that detractors of the organisation hold the view that HANCI is receiving money from foster parents of the adopted children on behalf of their parents which is a major misconception and described the publication as false, misguided and intended to tarnish the hard won reputation of HANCI which has been operating in Sierra Leone for over 13 years.
"My organization has over the years integrated thousands of orphans and abandoned children in Sierra Leone that nobody is talking about except the peddling of false accusations meant to smear the organisation's renowned reputation," Dr. Kargbo articulated. He further noted that in 1996, while in search of donor partners overseas, he came in contact with an American adoption organisation called the Main Adoption Placement Services (MAPS) which volunteered to sponsor the orphanage in Makeni. He also revealed that when officials of MAPS visited HANCI Sierra Leone in 1996, they were taken to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs where they were heartily welcomed and that MAPS informed the relevant stakeholders that if any parent is eager for his/her child to be adopted, the organisation was prepared to do so. He went on to maintain that the idea did not appeal to HANCI's existing partners because they did not want to get involved in inter-country adoption so the operations of MAPS became a separate programme.
With HANCI, he continued, MAPS opened an orphanage at No. 3 Mission Road in Makeni, called Child Survival Center, coordinated by Henry Abu and John Gbla and is registered and supervised by the Ministry of Social Welfare. "Since then, HANCI separated from MAPS. I can challenge anyone on this. Over the years, this matter came up in court and was prosecuted by the then Attorney General who established that the 23 adoptions by MAPS were legal and the matter was discharged," Dr. Kargbo revealed.
He said from 2008 to now, there has been lots of scandals in the media about the work of HANCI that caused SLANGO to form a committee to investigate the matter in which parents of the affected children and officials of the Ministry were invited but lamented that the latter were treated with levity.
He reiterated that CHERITH International adopted the children in question but underlined that although the organisation is not operating in the country, its Director is here but that nobody questions him on the issue, including the Probation Officer of the Ministry who approved and presented the documents to the High Court.
According to the HANCI Executive Director, the Ministry works with international organizations that facilitated adoption of the children but that nobody is questioning the Ministry that has all the relevant up-to-date documents.
20 Oct 2009
The Executive Director of Help A Needy Child International (HANCI), Dr. Roland F. Kargbo over the weekend refuted a front page story in a local tabloid headlined "180 Sierra Leoneans illegally adopted in the USA." He enlightened that detractors of the organisation hold the view that HANCI is receiving money from foster parents of the adopted children on behalf of their parents which is a major misconception and described the publication as false, misguided and intended to tarnish the hard won reputation of HANCI which has been operating in Sierra Leone for over 13 years.
"My organization has over the years integrated thousands of orphans and abandoned children in Sierra Leone that nobody is talking about except the peddling of false accusations meant to smear the organisation's renowned reputation," Dr. Kargbo articulated. He further noted that in 1996, while in search of donor partners overseas, he came in contact with an American adoption organisation called the Main Adoption Placement Services (MAPS) which volunteered to sponsor the orphanage in Makeni. He also revealed that when officials of MAPS visited HANCI Sierra Leone in 1996, they were taken to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs where they were heartily welcomed and that MAPS informed the relevant stakeholders that if any parent is eager for his/her child to be adopted, the organisation was prepared to do so. He went on to maintain that the idea did not appeal to HANCI's existing partners because they did not want to get involved in inter-country adoption so the operations of MAPS became a separate programme.
With HANCI, he continued, MAPS opened an orphanage at No. 3 Mission Road in Makeni, called Child Survival Center, coordinated by Henry Abu and John Gbla and is registered and supervised by the Ministry of Social Welfare. "Since then, HANCI separated from MAPS. I can challenge anyone on this. Over the years, this matter came up in court and was prosecuted by the then Attorney General who established that the 23 adoptions by MAPS were legal and the matter was discharged," Dr. Kargbo revealed.
He said from 2008 to now, there has been lots of scandals in the media about the work of HANCI that caused SLANGO to form a committee to investigate the matter in which parents of the affected children and officials of the Ministry were invited but lamented that the latter were treated with levity.
He reiterated that CHERITH International adopted the children in question but underlined that although the organisation is not operating in the country, its Director is here but that nobody questions him on the issue, including the Probation Officer of the Ministry who approved and presented the documents to the High Court.
According to the HANCI Executive Director, the Ministry works with international organizations that facilitated adoption of the children but that nobody is questioning the Ministry that has all the relevant up-to-date documents.