Siblings Abu and Massah were orphaned at 5 and 6 years old in the Kalia chiefdom of Sierra Leone and spent the next ten years in an orphanage. Big sister Massah recalls, “Years spent in the orphanage without someone to even visit was like being sentenced to life imprisonment.”
This summer, Kidsave’s partner in the region, Integrated Development Initiatives-Sierra Leone (IDI-SL), set out to find any living relatives of Abu and Massah. During this time IDI reunited 58 children with their extended families. Workers traveled thousands of kilometers across 21 chiefdoms in Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia, looking for living relatives for each of these children, in a process called case mining.
Abu and Massah had been without family for a long time, but they had each other. “To some extent we were parenting each other,” said Massah. “Whenever one of us felt lonely, the other would come to cheer up, counsel and promise support to each other. Abu was my confidant, and I was his confidant.”
The social workers began by asking the children what they knew about their birth family. They remembered an aunt and uncle whom they called Ma and Pa Sesay, but didn’t know their first names.
With that little information, IDI workers traveled to Kalia and hosted a community gathering to show photos of the children to people who lived there to see if anyone knew their relatives. It was a challenge. Sesay is a popular last name in that area, and it was hard for residents to remember Ma and Pa Sesay without knowing their first names. Their best lead was someone who remembered a man with the last name Sesay who had passed away around the time the children lost their parents. This man’s widow, Salatu, had moved with her family to the Pujehun district in southern Sierra Leone.
Here’s where the power of community comes in. Once talk circulated about Abu and Massah, word spread from one person to another, and eventually reached Salatu, who by now was living across the border in Liberia. As soon as she heard about the children, she immediately asked to meet them.
In a heartwarming example of case mining success, IDI determined that Salatu was indeed the aunt of Abu and Massah. The workers assessed her home in Liberia for safety, and Salatu prepared for the children to move in with her. Abu and Massah’s adoption was attended by the whole community at a reunification ceremony, and on September 5 they moved into their new home.
“Reuniting with our Aunt is a dream come true,” said Massah. “We feel relieved and comfortable to join her after spending several years in the orphanage without feeling the warmth of a relative.”
Our Sierra Leone team also provides training and education to local communities about the rights of children, menstrual hygiene for girls, managing the care of recently adopted children, and gender equality and protection. In recent months, 438 community members—both men and women—received this training, which helps strengthen the community and creates a better, safer place for the children to grow up.
