Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / July 2009

http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/article/510192

Ontario charity's orphanage closed
'Some of the children were actually not orphans'
July 17, 2009
BRIAN CALDWELL
MERCURY NEWS SERVICES
CAMBRIDGE

An orphanage in Ghana run by an Ontario charity has been shut down
over concerns that children were taken from their parents for
international adoption.

"Some of the parents were not aware, some of the children were
actually not orphans and so on," said Stephen Adongo, acting director
of social work in the African country.

"We found out that some of the parents didn't understand why their
children were taken away, why the children should be in school. They
were not told the facts, so we viewed that seriously."

Located near Accra, Ghana, the orphanage is run by Hands of Mercy
Christian Outreach International, a non-profit group based in Fort
Erie.

Problems there came to light after the collapse this week of Cambridge-
based Kids Link International Adoption Agency, which operated under
the name Imagine Adoption.

Imagine Adoption was working with the Ghana orphanage to arrange
adoptions by Canadian families who had invested $20,000 or more to get
children.

Up to 450 families across the country were stunned when Imagine
Adoption filed for bankruptcy amid concerns senior staff members,
including executive director Susan Hayhow, had unusually high expense
claims.

At various stages of the lengthy, costly international adoption
process -- mostly involving children from Ethiopia -- the families are
now in limbo while bankruptcy trustees and government officials try to
sort out the situation.

About 30 families had reached the point where they were matched with a
child while waiting for adoptions to be legally completed.

Nine of those children were at the Ghana orphanage, one of four run by
the husband-and-wife team behind Hands of Mercy. Those adoptions have
been on hold since allegations about the orphanage surfaced three
months ago.

Adongo said Ghana was already reviewing orphanages in the country when
he was alerted by the Canadian High Commission to concerns about
possible child trafficking at the Hands of Mercy facility.

An investigation by Ghana officials didn't turn up evidence of
children at the home being bought and sold for a profit or
exploitation. Adongo said they determined, however, that at least
three children slated for overseas adoptions had been taken away from
their parents.

"The orphanage sent people around to bring (children) to the place,"
he said in an interview yesterday.

Adongo said all adoptions through the orphanage were suspended and it
was recently ordered to shut down by the Ghana government. No improper
adoptions went ahead.

"We intervened at that time so they couldn't continue," he said.

Karen Shadd, a spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada,
said the Canadian government also suspended adoptions from the
orphanage after suspicions were raised.

"It's not something that we see a lot of," she said.

Deborah MacQuarrie, an evangelical Christian minister who runs Hands
of Mercy with her husband, Max, from their Fort Erie home, denied
doing anything wrong. She said the couple has been working since 1999
to help needy children abroad as a religious mission.

"We're a ministry," MacQuarrie said. "We serve God. We teach the
children about God. We take kids who are dying and we bring them in
and we love them and we give them everything we can give them."

She blamed improper placements at the Ghana orphanage on a local staff
member who got fired for bringing in members of his extended family.

MacQuarrie also denied the home has been shut down, with about 100
children still living there, and said the investigation by Ghana
officials cleared it of serious wrongdoing.

She said the group worked with an American agency to arrange about six
adoptions, with eight others underway, and didn't have any problems.

Adongo said the Ghana investigation didn't directly involve Imagine
Adoption, which began working with the orphanage last year.

Bankruptcy trustees are still sorting through Imagine's finances and
working with government officials to see if proper adoptions that had
reached the match stage can be completed.

Volunteer directors of the non-profit group grew worried about a month
ago after noting questionable expenses including leased luxury
vehicles.