American Fly-by-night woman cons orphanage

MBABANE – An American woman is alleged to have vanished with over E150 000 for humanitarian needs belonging to an orphanage at Nkiliji, outside Manzini.

The woman, who was only identified as Cathy, had voluntarily pledged to assist the Nkiliji Orphans Initiative with a tractor and a structure to house them.

Director of the orphanage Reverend Mexico Nene told the Times that Cathy first arrived in 2006 and took pictures of the orphans and further spoke to the authorities of the orphanage to get their endorsement to scout for the fees.

"She had said she was a nurse in the USA. She did not even spend a night in Swaziland during her few visits but simply rented a car at the airport and came to Nkiliji. She distributed food hampers and some clothing to the children, after which she promised to gather more support."

Reverend Nene said Cathy had promised to give the money for the tractor and other forms of assistance to Peter Kopp, a missionary resident in Swaziland.

"However, Kopp said he received nothing from the woman. She then disappeared and we have heard nothing of her since. She did not even call us and she has not given us her personal contact numbers," he said

Reverend Nene has confidence that the woman succeeded in scouting for the money because she had said that she managed to get something and would bring it to Swaziland for the Nkiliji orphans.

"She had promised that the assistance she had gathered would only cater for the purchase of a tractor, which would have been used to cultivate fields for the orph- ans.

Reverend Nene said the orphanage authorities suspe-cted foul play from the manner that Cathy dealt with the orphanage, because she has not returned since about three years ago.

"We were expecting her to keep briefing us on progress, but all has been quiet. She took pictures and had our blessing, yet she did not bother to return."

He said the orphanage currently has 30 orphans who rely on handouts for survi- val.

The Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organi-sations CANGO said the Nkiliji case was not isolated, as many other orphans were being taken for a ride by fly-by-night peo- ple.

Musa Dlamini, the Acting Director of CANGO said all nongovernmental organisations should be registered to avoid a scenario where people take orphans for a ride.

"The regulations that guide NGOs also provide for auditing to avoid such cases as misuse of money.

"We are currently creating a database of the NGOs so that their operations may be known."

He said the case of the US woman was similar to many others in which people scouted for resources but were not sincere when declaring how much they got.

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