Child Protection Sierra Leone Project #19252

Kidsave Sierra Leone: Reuniting Orphan with Family

by Kidsave International

Project Report | Apr 14, 2021
Kids as Problem-Solvers

By Bonnie Williams | Staff member

Ernestina & her aunt, celebrating her good grades!

When the director of the Mpondo Home orphanage in southeastern Sierra Leone asked Kidsave to find families for 17 children in their care last year, due to new government covid-related requirements, we did. Now those children are in permanent families. They are just the most recent of the over 1,000 children Kidsave has placed in family care since 2010.

And now, thanks to this strong, trusting relationship and the reputation of Kidsave and our partner, the Foundation for Integrated Development (FID) four more children are in the process of leaving Mpondo home to move back to their villages in the Mandu and Mbamahun communities.

The Director of Mpondo Home told FID that three girls and one boy children believe they have suitable relatives in their home villages and wanted to return. Food and other resources are more limited at the orphanage now, with covid still a challenge, and the children themselves are helping solve the problem. While FID was visiting with these children, two of them shared a breakfast of just bread and tea. Concerned about their well-being, FID is following the thoughtful (and accelerated) protocol of reunification to make sure the change is a positive one. When covid is less prevalent we will return to a robust reunification effort.

Kidsave and FID monitor children placed recently to assure that they have what they need and are living in a support environment. A recent monitoring of 303 children found that most were healthy, and those who weren’t, were getting the care they need. We also found that about 68% of the children were doing well in school and many of them will go on to secondary school, including those pictured here. But for others, challenges with health, absenteeism and lack of motivation to be in school are being addressed creatively and individually.

Kidsave and FID continue to help families grow food sustainably so that they can eat, sell some of their crop for income and replant some for future years. Our partnership is also now helping FID create a website so more people can be aware of and support its work.

Mohamed & his aunt, excited about his good grades!

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Dec 16, 2020
Friends become Family!

By Bonnie Williams | Staff member

Doris with new school supplies

Doris, a 14-year-old from the Mpodo Home orphanage, missed her friend Halima. Halima had left the orphanage months earlier to be reunited with her aunt through Kidsave’s Reunification program in Sierra Leone. But friendship is persistent and after several visits Doris, Halima and her aunt all felt the same way...Doris should join that family permanently!

Kidsave and its partner FID work to help children who have been stuck in orphanages and reunite them whenever possible. When kin cannot be found, other willing families can step up into that role. Halima’s aunt did just that and changed the trajectory for Doris.

Doris wrote that she was very happy to live with Halima and her aunt, adding that “Almost six years ago I was cut-off from community life; from playing hide-and-seek with my peer mates and sitting together at night to tell stories of our great ancestors. Coming back to live in Kanga village reminds me of the great sorrow I faced [when her parents died], but I now know that things will get better for me. I appreciate FID and KIDSAVE for bringing smiles to me again and I promise to make the best out of your support.”

Two other children were also taken in by the families of their former orphanage-mates who had been adopted months earlier. Kidsave enables each child to bring to their new family a large bag of rice, school supplies and a bed kit.

During 2020, Kidsave’s work shifted from finding new families for orphans to meeting basic needs for food, sanitary supplies, and school supplies amoung the families where children had been placed. But despite that shift, Kidsave was able to move 17 children into permanent, loving families, and monitor 350 children previously placed in families to be sure they had enough to eat and were in school. Where deficiencies were found, Kidsave stepped in to help with food, school fees or supplies, and sanitary supplies. Kidsave is currently training 140 Kidsave families in land preparation, composting, and growing their own food so they can be self-sufficient.

Clearing land to grow food.

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Aug 20, 2020
11 Children Orphaned by Ebola Find Families!

By Bonnie Williams | Staff member

Mpondo Home staff & 11 orphans now with families

In June, 11 older orphans from the Mpodo Home in the Bo District of Sierra Leone were reunified with their biological/extended families. During the much anticipated reunification ceremony, mattresses, large bags of rice and hand washing buckets were also given to the 11 children and their new families to help them take in another member.

The children were orphaned due to the Ebola virus and have been living in the Mpondo Home orphanage since 2014. Chidlren in orphanages are cut off from local cultures, customs, traditions, family living, home training and community living. Kidsave’s Sierra Leone program manager, Ibrahim, and his small team of social workers worked hard to find qualified relatives to raise these children.

“Children are our greatest asset and we must invest our time in them, train them to become responsible people and guide them as they grow,” he said. In the coming weeks social workers will visit each of the families to ensure that the children are living in a safe and healthy home and community. They will also conduct foster care training to reinforce good parenting.

One of the newly-placed children, Josephine, said, “I am very happy today to be reunified with my aunt. I now know that even though my biological mother and father are no more, they left behind somebody who has shown concern and passion to add me to her family. For six years I [was] cut off from community life; from playing hide-and- seek with my friends and sitting together in the night to hear stories of our great ancestors. Going back to where I come from reminds me of the great sorrow [of losing my parents] but I now know that things will get better for me with support from my aunt. I appreciate FID and [its funding partner] KIDSAVE for bringing smiles to me again and I promise to make the best out of your support.”

Josephine and her aunt.

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