Stan Sikorski
08-18-2004, 01:47 PM
Adopted kids left in Africa returned to Houston
By DALE LEZON
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
Seven skinny, sickly children reportedly abandoned in Nigeria by their adoptive mother nearly a year ago were rescued from an orphanage and returned Monday to Child Protective Services in Houston.
The three boys and four teenage girls ranging from 8 to 16 years old were discovered in late July living in a Nigerian orphans home ravaged by mosquitoes, malnutrition, malaria and typhoid. They are now in foster homes in Houston.
"It's horrible, horrible," said Estella Olguin, a CPS spokeswoman. "I haven't seen anything like it. Seven children fending for themselves in a foreign country where they have no family members."
Olguin said CPS officials don't know why the children were in the orphanage or if their adoptive mother, whose name was not released, knew they were there and no longer in school.
The woman was at a hearing Monday at which a state district judge ordered the children to be returned to CPS custody, Olguin said. CPS officials and state law enforcement authorities will determine whether criminal charges will be filed against the adoptive mother for allegedly neglecting the children or receiving the $512-a-month payment per child for their care. The woman is scheduled to appear in court again Aug. 26.
Olguin said the kids are happy to home, and the first food they asked for was pizza.
They're saying: "God bless America. We love America," she said.
From interviews with the children and their adoptive mother, authorities have pieced together this story:
The woman adopted four siblings from Houston in 1996 and another set of three siblings from Dallas in 2001. In October, she took them to Nigeria, where a relative of her fiance lived. The children were enrolled in school, and about 30 days later, their mother returned to Houston. She went to Iraq in April as a civilian worker in a dining operation.
Later, the children were taken out of school because payment for their tuition stopped. They then lived in a wooden shack that belonged to the fiance's relative. Nigerian child-protection authorities were tipped to the shack's squalor. They found the children malnourished and sick with malaria and typhoid. Mosquitoes swarmed around them. Authorities moved the children to an orphanage in late July.
Soon afterward, a minister from a San Antonio church passing through on missionary work overheard the children speaking with U.S. accents. He interviewed them and alerted U.S. congressmen, who called CPS.
CPS verified they were adopted through the agency. They were flown from Nigeria and arrived Friday in Houston.
Three were hospitalized with malaria and later released, Olguin said. All were skinny and covered with mosquito bites, infections and scars.
"They have suffered a horrible ordeal," she said. "But they want to be together."
The three boys were placed in one foster home and the girls were placed in another. Olguin said they visit each other every day. The agency hopes to adopt them all to one family.
CPS plans to offer them therapy to deal with the emotional ordeal. At some point they will begin school, but for now they are focusing on making their lives normal again. They don't want to live with their adoptive mother.
The mother is scheduled to return to Iraq.
"It's incredible," Olguin said. "The journey they had to endure was horrific."
By DALE LEZON
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
Seven skinny, sickly children reportedly abandoned in Nigeria by their adoptive mother nearly a year ago were rescued from an orphanage and returned Monday to Child Protective Services in Houston.
The three boys and four teenage girls ranging from 8 to 16 years old were discovered in late July living in a Nigerian orphans home ravaged by mosquitoes, malnutrition, malaria and typhoid. They are now in foster homes in Houston.
"It's horrible, horrible," said Estella Olguin, a CPS spokeswoman. "I haven't seen anything like it. Seven children fending for themselves in a foreign country where they have no family members."
Olguin said CPS officials don't know why the children were in the orphanage or if their adoptive mother, whose name was not released, knew they were there and no longer in school.
The woman was at a hearing Monday at which a state district judge ordered the children to be returned to CPS custody, Olguin said. CPS officials and state law enforcement authorities will determine whether criminal charges will be filed against the adoptive mother for allegedly neglecting the children or receiving the $512-a-month payment per child for their care. The woman is scheduled to appear in court again Aug. 26.
Olguin said the kids are happy to home, and the first food they asked for was pizza.
They're saying: "God bless America. We love America," she said.
From interviews with the children and their adoptive mother, authorities have pieced together this story:
The woman adopted four siblings from Houston in 1996 and another set of three siblings from Dallas in 2001. In October, she took them to Nigeria, where a relative of her fiance lived. The children were enrolled in school, and about 30 days later, their mother returned to Houston. She went to Iraq in April as a civilian worker in a dining operation.
Later, the children were taken out of school because payment for their tuition stopped. They then lived in a wooden shack that belonged to the fiance's relative. Nigerian child-protection authorities were tipped to the shack's squalor. They found the children malnourished and sick with malaria and typhoid. Mosquitoes swarmed around them. Authorities moved the children to an orphanage in late July.
Soon afterward, a minister from a San Antonio church passing through on missionary work overheard the children speaking with U.S. accents. He interviewed them and alerted U.S. congressmen, who called CPS.
CPS verified they were adopted through the agency. They were flown from Nigeria and arrived Friday in Houston.
Three were hospitalized with malaria and later released, Olguin said. All were skinny and covered with mosquito bites, infections and scars.
"They have suffered a horrible ordeal," she said. "But they want to be together."
The three boys were placed in one foster home and the girls were placed in another. Olguin said they visit each other every day. The agency hopes to adopt them all to one family.
CPS plans to offer them therapy to deal with the emotional ordeal. At some point they will begin school, but for now they are focusing on making their lives normal again. They don't want to live with their adoptive mother.
The mother is scheduled to return to Iraq.
"It's incredible," Olguin said. "The journey they had to endure was horrific."