Former HANCI Boss Testifies in Adoption Case

Concord Times (Freetown)

19 May 2011

Freetown — Former executive director of Help A Needy Child International (HANCI) on Tuesday testified under oath before the Justice Adeliza Showers Commission of Inquiry. The commission, which recommenced hearings on 1 May 2011, was set up by President Ernest Bai Koroma to investigate the HANCI/MAPS adoption of 29 Sierra Leonean children over a decade ago and to establish whether or not the biological parents had consented to the adoption of their kids.

Dr. Roland Foday Kargbo, who was HANCI’s executive director up to November 2010, told the commission that the agency is a registered non-governmental organisation that has been working under the ambit of the laws of the country. Dr. Kargbo informed the commission that HANCI commenced operations in 2004 with the main aim of providing social support to orphans and vulnerable children. He said at that time, they were working in displaced camps thereby providing basic services such as comforting children, providing them with teaching service and a host of other things.

The academic doctor maintained that at the end of 1995 they established a partnership with a British non-governmental organization called Hope and Homes for Children which at the time was concerned with running an orphanage at No. 3 Mission Road in Makeni. He said the British NGO later built an orphanage back of Birch Memorial Secondary School in Makeni and promised to fund the home for one year. Within this period, HANCI came in contact with Maine Adoption Placement Service (MAPS) with the latter demonstrating a keen interest in adoption while Hope and Homes focused on reintegration. And because they had no interest in adoption and did not want to use their tax payers’ money on such a venture, the organisation requested HANCI to separate their reintegration programme from the MAPS, Dr. Kargbo explained.

He further informed the commission that such an arrangement brought about the establishment of the Reintegration Center which was located at the back of Birch Memorial Secondary School in Makeni. The center hosted children that were to be reintegrated with their families and that was completely separate from the Child Survival Centre also known as Adoption Centre which was established for overseas adoption and upon the request made by Hope and Homes for Children, HANCI ended partnership with MAPS by the end of 1998, he said.

Dr. Kargbo noted that for those parents who took their children to the Child Survival Centre at 3 Mission Road, Makeni, a well codified multimedia approach was used to educate them about the implications of overseas adoption and this, he said, brought down the number of children that were in the centre from 33 to 29. He said three biological parents demanded for their children, which were returned to them, on the ground that they were no longer interested in the adoption process and that these parents were the Fofanah Family who had their twins adopted, the Jalloh Family and the Sheriff Family.

The former HANCI executive director stressed that those parents who consented for their children to be adopted were registered and the social history of their wards were taken by HANCI’s social workers particularly John Gbla and Henry Abu. He said the parents and the programme manager Henry Abu went to the ministry of Social Welfare regional office in Makeni in which the former were interviewed by the probation officer and later went to the Makeni Magistrate Court for supervision court order.

Dr. Kargbo said at this juncture HANCI hired the services of a solicitor in the person of Fio Chrispin Edwards Esq. who applied to the social development officer at the ministry of Social Welfare in the person of Mr. Jawara for him to grant permission for the process to be looked into by the High Court. He revealed that the permission was granted and the adoption issue was taken to the High Court where the Chief Justice assigned senior justices to preside on the matter and later granted permission for the children to be adopted by overseas parents.

Dr. Kargbo also told the commission that HANCI fully facilitated the adoption process and saw the departure of 15 children from the Lungi International Airport in early 1998 while the process for the remaining 14 was initially facilitated by HANCI but later completed by MAPS through Cherith International, which was their local partner and John Gbla and Henry Abu serving as heads.

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