Closure of LongArm Child Care, a Lilongwe-based orphanage, is pitting its American sponsors against its Malawi-based Country Director. The Americans believe the closure is aimed at stripping the orphanage of its assets and that officials from the social welfare office are part of the plot. The locals say the Americans use the NGO to steal.

JULIUS MBEŴE 

The closure of a Malawian-registered Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), LongArm Child Care, has opened a can of worms amid allegations that it could be linked to an extortion plot involving the local managers and officials from the Social Welfare Department, who put pressure on the American funders of the NGO to make payments amid threats of closure.

The Swiss-based NGO Terre des hommes is losing $10 million in annual contributions as a result of the suspension of humanitarian aid by the United States administration.

US President Donald Trump’s decision to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has “serious” and “immediate” consequences, said Terre des hommes Lausanne, which is Switzerland’s largest children’s aid organisation.

The NGO explains that projects in nine countries have been affected, with around 1.5 million beneficiaries losing “vital support”.

In detail, projects in Bangladesh, Kenya, Lebanon, Egypt, Afghanistan, India and Burkina Faso are directly affected. Due to the cessation of contributions to UN partner organisations, activities in Romania and Nigeria are also affected.

The end of US aid also means that the contracts of 440 employees, including over 200 in Bangladesh and more than 100 in Egypt, have had to be suspended or terminated.

BY PIJ REPORTER

Pastor Ryan Lilli, a South African cleric who worked at Kondanani Children’s Village, a Bvumbe-based orphanage, has been found with one case to answer by the Midima Magistrate’s Court in Limbe.

Both Lilli’s lawyer Tamando Chokotho and private practice lawyer Chikondi Chijozi, who is prosecuting the case, told PIJ that Lilli has been found with a case to answer on the count of indecent assault.

He was, however, found with no case to answer on the other two counts of rape and having sex with a minor.

“On the charge of rape, the court found that the accused has no case to answer. On the charge of indecent assault, the court found that the accused has a case to answer and on the charge of having sexual intercourse with a minor under one’s care, he was also found with no case to answer.

BY PIJ INVESTIGATIONS

The Timotheos Foundation in Malawi was founded on June 10, 2011, in a quest to spread Christian evangelism and support the country’s most vulnerable, through among others, education bursaries to the most underprivileged children.

The foundation was a development arm of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Malawi. Today, decades later, the foundation is at the centre of one of the most horrific allegations of child sexual abuse in the country.

At the center of the allegations is a Dutch National, Wim Akster, who in 2011 responded to a call to help run the foundation. Through the foundation and support of the Dutch Timotheos Board, they were going to tackle poverty, support the communities surrounding its churches and work with reformed churches to spread the Word of God to local Malawians.

Six boys who worked at the foundation allege that they were molested by Akster, accusations that led to Akster’s arrest in August 2020…Akster denies abusing the boys, arguing all sexual activity was consensual, and has applied to the constitutional court, seeking a declaration that his arrest infringed on his right to privacy and, in effect, a declaration that the country’s anti-homosexuality laws are illegal.

BY JACK McBrams

Kondanani Children’s Village at Bvumbwe, 30 kilometres from Blantyre towards the scenic tea plantation landscapes of Thyolo, is regarded as the finest orphanage in Malawi. By far. 

So highly regarded that, 13 years ago, Kondanani Children’s Village made global headlines when global pop star Madonna adopted four-year-old Chifundo Mercy James from the orphanage.

From the outside, the orphanage mirrors an image of bliss and happiness—a perfect haven for the 168 orphans of ranging ages that are privileged with free shelter, education, and care.

However, by sifting through court documents and interviewing victims and witnesses, PIJ has uncovered allegedly shady shenanigans that paint the institution in a different light.

Jason and Lacy Carney

2nd Milk, a Christian charity claiming to feed underprivileged children in Malawi has been exposed as a fraudulent operation designed to give the owners access to significant donor funding that they use to fund a luxury lifestyle. Financial statements track how the charity founders pocketed most of the money donated to the charity, ramping payments to themselves up as authorities started looking at their charitable businesses more closely.

GOLDEN MATONGA & GODFREY MAOCHA 

GOLDEN MATONGA

Jason Carney, the founder of the controversial Malawi registered NGO exposed by PIJ for exploiting Malawi children has been arrested by authorities in the US.

The specific charges against Carney, whose organization has been the subject of two major PIJ investigations around the use of its finances and illegal adoptions in Malawi, are yet to be released.

Closure of LongArm Child Care, a Lilongwe-based orphanage, is pitting its American sponsors against its Malawi-based Country Director. The Americans believe the closure is aimed at stripping the orphanage of its assets and that officials from the social welfare office are part of the plot. The locals say the Americans use the NGO to steal.

JULIUS MBEŴE 

• October 19, 2006submitted to: Members of the House of Representatives, Committee of Justice | status: submitted | draftedby: Kim Verhaaf, Marcos Lukana Champi, Milou van UdenRecommendations for Specification of Post Adoption ServiceAccording to article 9c of the “Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 for the Protection ofChildren and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption”.IntroductionSince 1991, associations of and for intercountry adoptees have beenestablished in the Netherlands and are active in the adoption field.

Korean adoptees worldwide are grappling with a devastating possibility: they were not truly orphans, but may have been made into orphans.

For decades, adoptees were told they were “abandoned”, “rescued” or “unwanted”. Many were told their Korean families were too “poor” or “incapable” to raise them – and they should only ever feel grateful for being adopted.

But these long-held stories are now under scrutiny.

Our recent research interrogates the narratives that have obscured the darker realities of intercountry adoption. Rather than viewing adoption solely through the lens of “rescue”, our work examines the broader power structures that facilitated the mass migration of Korean children to western countries, including Australia.

South Korea’s reckoning with its adoption history