Almost one year ago today I took the fast boat past Gibraltar as the first of many steps in the journey to Village de l’Espérance Orphanage. There I met a few very special people who’d taken in fifty Moroccan orphans and constructed a beautiful school and homes for them in the Middle Atlas mountains near Aïn Leuh, Morocco.
Most of you who know me know that I’m extremely critical of NGOs whose staff come from Christian backgrounds, but Village of Hope’s staff are on par with the best on the planet. I’m proud to say that I know the staff of Village of Hope and I can say with confidence that they’re doing work that will prepare these children to be reintegrated to Moroccan culture with ease after they’ve left the facility.
Today I received some very bad news. VOH staff has just been informed that they must leave the country immediately. We don’t know much more than that, but should hear within the next 24 hours. What we do know is that even the staff has no idea what will happens to the kids in the facility. This situation is undoubtedly touching on these children’s deep psychological and emotional wounds. It’s hard being abandoned once. I don’t want to think about what it must feel like to be orphaned twice.
Below is a press release detailing what we know so far. I’ll post as soon as I hear more, and I’ll let you know if there’s something you can do. For now, please share this link as well as http://www.voh-ainleuh.org (orphanage website) with your friends and family. If you’re on Twitter, please tweet using the hashtag #MoroccoOrphans.
MOROCCAN AUTHORITIES INVADE CHILDREN’S ORPHANAGE – EXPEL PARENTS FROM COUNTRY
Release Drafted Mar. 8, 2010 by Allen Wolf
Monday, March 8th, Moroccan authorities raided Village of Hope (VOH), a children’s home in the Middle Atlas mountains of Morocco, originally founded by two Americans in 1957 as a home for orphaned children. The authorities arrived during the school day, entered the classrooms and told the adopted children their parents are being told to leave the country and will be leaving the children behind.
In the ensuing chaos, officials told the parents at VOH that they are being expelled from the country because they have been talking to their children about Christianity.
In 2002, the Village of Hope registered with the Moroccan government as an official Christian organization and received permission to talk about Christianity to the children in their care. Under the Moroccan government, it is illegal for anyone to talk about their Christian faith without first being asked. In the case of these parents, they had gotten permission to do so from the government.
As the secret police raided VOH, children cried out hysterically for their parents who were being forced to board a bus to the airport 30 minutes after receiving this news. The authorities are not allowing the parents to take any of the children with them which leaves behind 33 children who were in their care.
The staff at Village of Hope had moved there to dedicate their lives to adopting unwanted and orphaned children. In Morocco, it is only legal for Muslims to adopt children so the parents were acting as “foster parents” but in actuality the children considered them to be their parents.
The staff were told this directive came from the new Minister of Justice for Morocco, Mohammed Naciri.
Contact from Village of Hope: Chris Broadbent, 212 650 731 307 kiwimaroc@gmail.com
I have connections with VoH and am trying to gather info about the details. Please tell me where you found this press release.
This press release was drafted by a friend of VOH who has visited the children’s home in the past. I received it from a friend of that person.
I found a copy of it here…
http://awholelottaloving.blogspot.com/2010/03/morocco.html
You might be able to ask this young lady where she got it. It seems she copied it into hers.
I appreciate your comments JC. I was a board member there for several years until last year when I returned to the States.
Mike,
So glad you found the press release via my blog!
This press release was released by Allen Wolf on behalf of Chris Broadbent, the media contact person for the Village of Hope (he was deported with the other 19). We have been in constant contact with him. As of right now, the twenty parents are in Spain, regrouping and talking to Moroccan officials. We believe all 33 children are in the care of the only Moroccan couple who lived at the Village of Hope, as well as being looked over by their teachers. This brings us joy as we know they are being watched over by people who know them. The parents have not contacted the children, but we are praying everyone is okay.
PLEASE let me know if you need any more information.
-Elizabeth
elizshelby@gmail.com
We have family working at VOH. The foreigners are being deported and that means the parents. It’s absolutely heartbreaking that they have to leave behind the children they have loved for 10 years. VOH has done so much for the surrounding communities too and these people will be so much poorer (in so many ways) now that this has happened.
Any news on other foreign workers/teachers in Morocco? Is it a mass target to many aid workers or isolated to this group?
Great question, G. I hope to hear more news in the next few hours. I’ll post here as soon as I know anything.
Workers in other parts of the country have also been questioned and forced to leave, including a friend of mine and her family who works at a school there. This is a sad development for the people fo Morocco, as they are losing people who love them and have dedicated their lives to serving them.
My husband and I just returned from M after teaching at an American school for four years. We have worked in M since 1987. Do you know which family was forced to leave and from which school? My husband and I are purposely not sending emails to our friends we have taught with for security reasons. Please let me know the situation as you have information.
Thanks!
Rosemary, it’s Shannon P. Email Lauren if you have her email. She has more information! Miss you!
Very alarming development and “if” true, tragic.
As President Ronald Reagan said, “trust, but verify.”
All involved are in our family prayers.
matt
Kailua, Hawai’i
Yes I’ve heard from other contacts in the country that about 20 other foreigners living throughout Morocco were deported over the weekend and that it seems this is definitely a policy shift that will likely continue. Pray for softened hearts among the newly appointed Minister of Justice and the Interior
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Some more info here:
http://theagetocome.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/christian-orphanage-forcibly-shut-down-in-morocco/
I’m getting this out through as many media contacts that I have.
Contact:100 Piet Harms
Name:Latifa Sefiane Ring
My name is Latifa Sefiane Ring.
I am the oldest orphan girl raised at the Children’s Haven of Morocco in Azrou. I was born in 1955 and was the second child taken in by Mary Mellinger and Irena Wenholz. Imogene Coats and Ellen Doran who founded a sister home for children in Ain Leuh which has now become the village of hope were close colleagues.
These women who left all their worldly possessions behind and who left their families in the United States went on to Morocco to make a difference in the lives of many otherwise destitute and abandoned orphans. Yes they were Christian women but they did so much more. Under their care well over 100 children were raised who went on to live productive lives. Some of them are computer engineers, accountants, counselors, financial advisors, social workers and sole proprietors amoung other professions. Most of them now have children of their own and some have grandchildren. All were well educated.
I am a computer professional with over 30 years of experience in the industry. I have a college education and have owned my own business. Irena Wenholz had an incredible impact on my life and today I too and a fierce advocate for the needy and vulnerable of society here in the United States. I became involved in politics to help the cause of elderly and disabled victims of abuse and exploitation.
In the past few years I have become involved in politics here in the US. I attended a national convention as a delegate, worked to get elder abuse on the DNC national platform and have testified to Congress on Capitol Hill advocating for those less fortunate than me. Ironically, Irena and Mary went to Morocco to help vulnerable citizens and today I live in the USA where I am working to help those in need here in this country. Perhaps in my own way I am paying in back.
For the past five years I have struggled though the Courts here in the US to help Mary Mellinger who was a victim of abuse and who was abandoned by and forced to leave Morocco, her home of 60 years, by the very mission that she founded. Today she lives in Texas and I see to her care. It is my duty.
If it was not for the Haven, for all the right or wrong that may have been done, I often ask myself where would I be. I wonder the same for many of the other children. Sure things could have been done differently but look at how far we have come.
At the end of the day the concern should only be for the children. Are they well cared for ? Are they shown love ? What kind of future will they have.
I hope and pray that those in charge of the Village of Hope and the Haven remember it is about the children.
Latifa Sefiane Ring