HEALTH

MOH, Justice Denied My Children Golden Opportunity
---Aggrieved Father

The father of the three children the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare smuggled out of the Mission of the West African Child Support Network (WACSN) Mr. Randall Keculah ----says Acting Minister of Justice, Cllr. Eva Mappy Morgan has denied his children their ever life time golden opportunity that may never come their way again.
Upon the directives of Acting Minister Morgan, she said his children were stopped from leaving the country at the Roberts International Airport (RIA) on grounds that the ministry did not give them clearance of departure.
He said, he, in keeping with law and required legal procedures governing adoption, relinquished the children to the West African Child Support (WACSN) to be adopted under a court degree, which was later climaxed with an interview for visa at the United States Embassy, noting that the effort of the non-governmental organization was wasted owing to the action of Acting Minister Morgan by ordering security officers at the RIA to stop the children from entering the plane.
Addressing himself to the rather unfortunate situation in a chat with reporters yesterday, Mr. Keculah indicated that because of the action of the Acting Justice Minister, the adopted parents have refused to accept the children anymore.
Keculah, a father of seven children, said the mother of the children died during delivery of one of the children who was denied, noting “after completing all paperwork in compliance with Liberian Adoption Laws, which include the granting of a decree by the Probate Court, the children were then approved for adoption by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.”
A press statement issued today quoted him as adding that an independent investigation to establish the biological parenthood of the children was conducted by the US Embassy thereby allowing WACSN to put in place its customary practice of inviting the adopting parents to Liberia to spend three weeks to bond with the children.
Mr. Stressed that a required interview with the US Embassy was scheduled to complete the adoption process after which, the three Liberian children were then issued a visa for travel to the United States by the US Embassy.
After being cleared by Liberian Immigration at the Roberts International Airport, the three children were then stopped with their adoptive parents from boarding the plane by a Liberian government official who insisted that another clearance for departure was required before departing Liberia. In this process, the children were denied travelling to America, while their adoptive parents looked on and felt insulted, embarrassed, and belittled.
“A sad end to this story of the three boys now ends in a tragedy, with their future compromised and their father left in a state of bewilderment. The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare illegally removed them from the WACSN Compound without a court order and placed them with street children at the Don Bosco Home,” the traumatized father of the children said.

“Keep in mind that many of these children have been in WACSN’s care for the past three to five years attending private school and being cared for by doctors at the Saint Joseph Catholic Hospital. The tragedy of this situation is the adoptive parent in America has said that they do not want to adopt the children any longer because of the behavior of government officials,” Keculah is quoted as saying in the press statement.
According to Mr. Keculah, the action of the Acting Justice Minister is something he will never forget in life.
“The Minister is a mother and good thing she took her children at the airport to travel to the States, when took that decision my children from going where her children is, now my is now at Don Bosco Home a place where nobody wants their children to be, who knows such opportunity may not come their way again”, he told reporters.
Meanwhile Judge James Zota of Criminal Court “A” has found the Health and Social Welfare Ministry guilty for illegally removing the children from the home of WACSN with court order.
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