Adoption. Simon, promised twice

From 2012, the French Community of Belgium launched an adoption program with Congo. Risky bet in a country that has no census of its population and where corruption is endemic? No doubt, but solid guarantees were given. Belgian legislation among the most demanding in Europe, preparation missions which gave full satisfaction, a local partner, the non-profit organization "Tumaini", directed by a Belgian-Congolese lawyer (Julienne Mpemba) and chaired by an international reference in the world filiation (Géraldine Mathieu, University of Namur). The experience will prove catastrophic. As revealed in 2017 Het Laatste Nieuws, four children out of the last 12 to arrive in Belgium are said to be “stolen” from their families, and a fifth is said to have been promised to two families. For two years, the French Community was unable to take the measure of the debacle which was announced and supporting until the end the financial requests of Tumaini.

Médor investigated the case of Simon, a young Congolese promised to an American family and a Belgian family. It sheds a harsh light on Tumaini's practices.

Monday, October 5, 2015. Around 3 p.m. Somewhere in Hainaut. Sylvie Durant receives a call. This is the Belgian embassy in Kinshasa (DR Congo). Can she come the next day to Zaventem airport? At 5 a.m.? His son Simon arrives. Her interlocutor, the Ambassador in person, insists: she must not tell anyone. Not even the French Community.

Tuesday, October 6, 5 a.m., in Zaventem. Simon is snuggled up in the arms of an embassy employee. Sylvie and her companion Pierre take away the puny kid.

The same day, the administration of the French Community, informed late on of Simon's arrival, asks Sylvie and Pierre not to say anything. The next day, the office of socialist minister Rachid Madrane (in charge of adoption at the Wallonia-Brussels Federation), through the voice of his chief of staff Eric Mercenier, invites "a certain discretion". Why ? 11 adopted children are still at the orphanage and talking could “compromise the efforts undertaken by the Belgian authorities” to bring them back. There would however be things to “say”: on his arrival, Simon weighs 8 kilos at 2.5 years old. He was undernourished and risks lifelong sequelae.

Three weeks earlier, Simon was still living in Kinshasa in the Tumaini orphanage. The place accommodates about thirty children. Relations have deteriorated terribly in two years. The moratorium on international adoptions in Congo has seriously complicated the deal. Wanting to protect children from human trafficking and… from homosexual parents, this decision by the Congolese authorities also prevents hundreds of children, including Simon, from leaving the country.

In March 2015, seeing the few group photos posted via the Facebook wall of the Tumaini orphanage, Sylvie and Pierre were worried about Simon's state of health, still sitting, his feet abnormally placed, his legs so thin. They repeat their concerns in September and warn director Julienne Mpemba. Who answers September 14, 2015. She assures that Simon is standing. “He is fine, he eats well, he is a brawler, he stands but does not walk yet. She probably hadn't seen Simon for a while...

The next day, September 15, Doctor Urbain Ménase, dispatched by the Belgian Embassy, ??visited the children of the orphanage. At 2.5 years old, Simon weighs 5.7 kilos (he should weigh at least 9). The medical report leaves no room for doubting the medical emergency: “Severe case of malnutrition” . Simon has a “borderline” head circumference and “will probably have to worry about his brain growth” . He is also "sad, apathetic, non-communicative and irritable" , with an "association of psychomotor disorders, retarded stature (of growth) and nervous development at this underweight". Simon was hospitalized the following week at the Kalembe Lembe Pediatric Hospital (Kinshasa). Doctor Ménase, from the Belgian Embassy, ??signed this recommendation on October 3: “Transfer to Belgium for rapid treatment by a neuro-child psychiatrist” .

Hence the urgent call to Sylvie. And the arrival, finally, of Simon in Belgium, without the knowledge of Julienne Mpemba.

Simon will quickly regain weight. The vital parameters are correct. He is curious, seeking contact. He sleeps a lot and has severe psychomotor retardation. His greed for food subsides. In the Congo, Simon was starving. Slowly. Literally. In a partner orphanage of the French Community of Belgium.

THE CHILD NEVER ARRIVED

Simon is in Belgium. But it had also been announced in the United States.

The Bartovksy family lives in Texas. She is very religious. As early as May 2013, she explains that she saw Simon's photo on an adoption site, and it was love at first sight for the little one. She contacted the Journeys of the Heart (Oregon) adoption structure, run by David Slansky and Susan Tompkins. They are opening a new program in Congo. With a reliable partner. The brochure advertises “an orphanage organized and run by an ethical and competent director who grew up in Western Europe and obtained a law degree” . Julienne Mpemba.

The legal adoption procedures for Simon have not been initiated, but, according to Tania Bartovksy, she pays in August 2013 the 20,000 dollars requested by Journeys of the Heart. In September 2013, things got complicated. The international moratorium prevents hundreds of adopted children from leaving the Congo. Simon is among them.

In August 2014, a year later, the Bartovksy family learned that Simon was not well. He would have contracted a parasite and must be hospitalized. It is necessary to pay 250 dollars per month, directly, to a man named Pablo in Kinshasa, via Western Union. From August 2014 to February 2015, the Texans pay the sum. In March 2015, the family received a phone call from David Slansky, their contact at Journeys of the Heart. “Simon is dead. »The blow is hard for the Bartovksy family. It may be difficult to understand for those who have not adopted. But parents are preparing for the arrival of a child, they attach themselves to photos, details, a few health news. Simon is much more than a file. He was already a member of the family. The Bartovksy family hold a wake for their child who never arrived. Tania, who speaks of a "devastating period" , cannot resign herself to removing Simon's photo from her Facebook profile.

In October 2015, the Bartovsky family is in direct contact, via Facebook, with a person they do not identify but who obviously knew Simon. Probably via the orphanage's Facebook. Tania Bartovsky explains that she would like to have details of Simon's death. She details her pain, the difficulty of forgetting this boy who accompanied her for two years and whom she had to mourn. The mysterious person responds via a message in French. “You can adopt another child from me whenever you want. “ The business continues.

On November 13, 2015, Tania is in contact with Tumaini's Facebook. A person sends her a message: she must remove Simon's photo from her profile. The Texan then asks who is her interlocutor? A message appears: “My name is Julienne Mpemba. She announces herself on her way to Portland, the headquarters of Journeys of the Heart. Tania Bartovsky, who had received little information about the boy's death, is surprised by the request and begins to have doubts. Through adoption sites in Congo, she will discover the photo of Simon with the Durant family, in Belgium, and contact them. Both families become aware of the double promise.

In December 2015, the Durant family informed Didier Dehou (ACC, "adoption" service of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation) of his contact with the American family and of this possible double relationship. Either all the same a suspicion of fraud with adopted minors. Perspectives to panic an administration? Not really. Only a second email four months later, with the Madrane cabinet and the General Delegate for Children's Rights in copy, will make it possible to obtain an answer and a reaction.

We will not have to count on our Belgian authorities to shed light on the practices across the Atlantic of their Congolese partner. Nobody was aware of this American market. However, at the beginning of 2013, Julienne Mpemba expressed her wish to work with the United States during a meeting with Didier Dehou (ACC) and Géraldine Mathieu (president of Tumaini). American adoption organizations have a reputation for accepting children with severe disabilities and… paying well. The ACC advises against it, given the weak guarantees requested and the mercantile aspect of the American steps. A collaboration with the United States is unthinkable for Géraldine Mathieu, a reference in the academic world on questions of filiation. She is also proud to chair an association that only works with Belgium, whose adoption standards are among the most demanding. On June 27, 2015, she sent a letter to Didier Dehou welcoming Tumaini's seriousness:“Our desire to work only in partnership with Belgium was precisely motivated by our concern to guarantee irreproachable ethics in the adoption process, at any stage whatsoever. »

At that time, Simon died in the United States and soon arrived in Belgium.

Was Simon a unique case? The Texas family evokes at least one other family expecting two children from Tumaini. And the message received in October 2015 ( “You can adopt another child from me whenever you want.” ) while Julienne Mpemba was on her way to Portland seems to confirm that adoptions with the United States either had resumed or had not. never stopped. Children present at the orphanage during the visit of Evelyne Huytebroeck (then minister in charge of adoption) in January 2013 found themselves on the Journeys of the Heart brochure launched in July 2013. Including Simon. Have they also been adopted in the United States? And if not, where are they?

Despite numerous attempts to contact by email, telephone, WhatsApp or Facebook, Médor was unable to obtain the version of the facts from David Slansky, director at Journeys of the Heart.

The investigation currently being conducted by the Federal Prosecutor's Office may answer these questions. The administration of the French Community, it obviously no longer has any responsibility vis-à-vis the children that its partner has welcomed. Concerning Simon, “the adoption procedure for the child in question took place completely correctly on a legal level (Belgian and Congolese) , assures Didier Dehou. When the ACC was made aware of this situation, it had already broken all contact with Julienne Mpemba for several months and no new match had been made since the end of October 2013.

In short, everything would be settled.

BELGIAN RESPONSIBILITIES?

The Tumaini orphanage was very well supported by the Belgian structures: a non-profit association in Belgium chaired by an academic reference, three approved partner adoption organizations (the OAA Larisa, Sourires d'Enfants and the Flemish OAA FIAC-Horizon) as well as an administration which, a priori, closely followed the file of political initiative (it is the cabinet of the ecologist minister Huytebroeck which, under a government PS-cdH-Écolo, built this partnership with Congo). And as incredible as it seems, no serious census of the children at the orphanage, no accounting control, almost no medical follow-up, very few photos during the moratorium, that is almost two years. The situation was exceptional, but the perfect standards of Belgian monitoring take a hit. On his site,?to oversee all adoption procedures, both in Belgium and abroad” while the AABs “ensure the follow-up of adopted children and adopters” .

"With each partnership, there is a control that is done with the Central Community Authority (ACC), of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, on the stability of the collaboration, explains Valérie Oliveri, director of Sourires d'enfants, one of the OAA who worked with Tumaini. […] We are partners but not employers. We don't have the right to monitor. There is a canvas of collaboration and then there is no control. »

This lack of control did not prevent the administration of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation from relaying the financial demands of Julienne Mpemba, and this until the end. On December 2, 2015, in a letter whose subject is the "finalization of the adoption procedure for Simon" , the administration asks Sylvie and Pierre to settle their accounts. The letter resumes the amounts demanded by Tumaini for the supervision offered to Simon. A significant part was advanced to Tumaini, via the OAA, by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. And… it's up to the parents to repay. The letter from the administration ends as follows:"The grievances that can be addressed to the non-profit association Tumaini and the actions of the head of the institution during the last days spent by the children in Kinshasa should not overshadow the commitment that this association and this person have shown to the abandoned children or the reality of the care that the children received for two or three years or even more from the staff of the institution. »

“The reality of care” … Difficult to read when your kid weighed 50% of the reference weight three months earlier. At 4.5 years old, Simon's language is not developing, possible consequences of his early life.

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Olivier Bailly

Olivier is a freelance journalist and one of the founders of Médor . He is part of the pilot team (editors) of the magazine.

He has carried out, among other things, investigations on the Bhopal disaster, the world of hunting, parallel import medicines, international adoption, bpost temporary workers (Belfius award 2013) or over-indebtedness (Belfius award 2011) .

Intermittent teacher (IHECS), novelist by detour ( On the crane , Say, little bitch, tell me everything ) and documentary author by period ( These lives in bankruptcy, IKEA, a model to disassemble , L ), Olivier is interested today a lot (but not only) to the pharmaceutical world in Belgium, its joys, its sorrows, its medical trials...

Contact :

Signal: +32 472 49 96 49

Email: olivier@medor.coop

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