Problem with Orphans Sierra Leone

We, Melissa Giraldo and Vladimir Támara, want to adopt a child from Sierra Leone. We have tried to make a contact with an organization in Sierra Leone to complete the adoption, we began with Orphans Sierra Leone via Internet in January 2003. After near 3 months of communication via email, preparaing for helping and collecting some donations for orphans, we travelled to Sierra Leone during May 2003. The people of Orphans Sierra Leone helped us to find a place to stay (in the house of a friend of them in Kissy, Freetown). There they asked us US$1500 to complete the adoption process but they didn't do it.

Before traveling we had confidence on that organization since:

Being there, initially we gained also confidence since they were very nice and they showed us "orphanages" and several "orphans" and children that they were supposed to assist.

We rejected the first child they had for us since the mother was alive, although we were not informed the mother was sister of one of the members of Orphans Sierra Leone (Mandel Contey who was de adoption manager of the organization). After that they "helped" us find another child, who they said didn't have mother neither father nor siblings. We knew the child in an "orphanage" (PWD Junction, Kamanda Farm 9, Kissy) and began to live with her while Orphans Sierra Leone made the tramits. It resulted that the child was daughter of a sister of another member of Orphans Sierra Leone (Marian Grace whose real name seems to be Marian Bangura) and that the orphanage, as well as other 2 that they showed us, were just places where this organisation along with other people used children of the neighborhood to make us beleive their lies. Other two members of the organization were Emannuel (owner of a pharmacy in Kissy) and Alpha.

We apologize for the recommendations we made of this organization. We had collected clothes, we gave the majority of them to the children in the false orphanages. We had also collected money that unfortunately we gave to this organization (they gave us recepits of the money they received). We apologize with the people that helped us to collect this money, since it went to wrong hands.

Although Melissa gave her testimony (CID and anticorrruption) and helped the local authorities and although at least two of them went to jail for some days, it has not been possible to recover the money. We leave the rest of the clothes with a woman that helped us there, hoping that she will be able to give it to orphans in Sierra Leone.


Last update: 9/Jul/2003
Comments & suggestions: vtamara@informatik.uni-kl.de
Information releseade to the public domain. Nuestro Amigo Jesús
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