Adama kamara
By Umaru Fofana
A woman who was adopted in 1998 as a three year-old girl says she was “trafficked” and “sold” for $ 17,000 to her adoptive parents in the United States.
Adama Kamara – one of dozens of children whose adoption was facilitated through an agency called Help A Needy Child International (HANCI) – returned home recently to meet her biological father, contrary to her adoption documents.
Notarised death certificates of her parents had said that the father died of a snake bite and the mother of a heart attack.
Parents of children said to number more than 200 have consistently complained that they gave their offspring to HANCI for purposes of educating them but that they were taken away without their consent and that they have not seen them since 1998.
Adama said that her adoptive parents paid 17,000, an amount she said “went towards the paper work [in Sierra Leone] but I do not know who was in charge of the paper work…” She expressed 100% confidence that “there was money transactions involved” for the other children as well.
Adama alleged that there were even physical and sexual abuses of the children at the centre, something she said would later affect her growth.
“It was very hard. From what I know… the children were sexually abused and physically abused” the 21-year-old told Politico.
She said she still felt some of the effects of her being at the centre. Asked what some of those consequences were, she said she struggled in school, felt depressed, and became nervous and anxious and felt “alone and empty”.
In a shaky voice, Adama said: “My depression became very, very severe. I attempted to commit suicide about six times and I have been through various therapy sessions… “. She said she even took to substance abuse as a consequence of what she allegedly went through as a child before meeting her American parents.
She said her biological parents had no clue she was being put up for adoption.
“I was not given up for adoption with the consent of my biological parents. They did not know I was going to America” she said.
“My adoptive parents did not know that I was being trafficked to America. My adoptive parents did not know that my biological parents were not aware that I was being adopted,” she said.
She said she was taken to a refugee camp in Guinea and later to Ghana where she would be adopted. She named four HANCI officials she alleged were involved in “trafficking” her, demanding for justice for her and the “over 200 children”.
One of those she mentioned is the former head of HANCI, Dr Rolland Kargbo, who has vehemently denied any wrongdoing. Dr Kargbo, now a Member of Parliament from Port Loko District, said Adama’s grandmother gave her up to them for adoption. He denied deliberately distorting information on the adoption papers.
“She was adopted through an adoption agency – the Maine Adoption Agency – [and] her grandmother presented her for adoption stating that her parents were dead”, Dr Kargbo insisted.
“We had two orphanages: The one orphanage was for children who were separated from their parents whom we provided care for until their parents turned up. The other was for adoption” he went on.
He said they had “only about 35 or 40 children in the orphanage for adoption purposes, and it was clear”, adding that many more parents opted for adoption for their children but that there was not enough space.
“We had space for only about 29 [children] and they were the ones that were assigned for adoption for Maine Adoption Placement Services” Dr Kargbo said.
Speaking at some point in a voice tinged with emotion, he said: “I am very aggrieved by the position of the parents myself because I see it as total deception simply because things were difficult with them and there were facilities on our side they came and lied to us”.
He said if ever there was any proof of money having changed hands he would plead guilty.
“Any time, even when this case is closed, that there is clear evidence that there was money involved with this matter then I am guilty” he said.
Abu Bakarr Kargbo, a spokesman for the aggrieved parents, said some of them were traumatised by not having seen or even heard from their children in 18 years. He said some of the parents would “walk and talk to themselves…when they go to sleep they see their kids…they see their faces”.
In 2010, government set up a commission of enquiry into the saga which found anomalies in the process. A subsequent White Paper banned HANCI and recommended the prosecution of five people named in the report including Dr Kargbo.
Preliminary investigations bordering on human trafficking were held, and the matter was committed to a high court in February 2014 for trial. No indictments have been made since, prompting the spokesman for the aggrieved parents to accuse the state of a cover-up if only “to protect a sitting member of parliament”.
The Director of Public Prosecution, Sulaiman Bah declined to comment on why the matter had taken two-and-a-half years with no indictments let alone a trial, referring Politico to the Attorney General.
Attorney General, Joseph Kamara would not say anything beyond the following: “The matter is very serious and very close to my heart. I am currently studying it with a view to pressing charges”.
© Politico 12/07/16
