November 15, 2007 | Read Time: 4 minutes
International relief groups are trying to smooth relations with Africans and African government officials after a scandal involving a French charity raised suspicions about their charitable operations and goodwill.
Last month, six employees of L’Arche de Zoé (Zoe’s Ark), a charity based in Paris, were arrested for attempting to kidnap 103 children from the eastern African nation of Chad. If they are convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.
The group, which was established in 2005 to help victims of the South Asian tsunamis, said its members were on a humanitarian mission to bring orphans from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region to France, where they would be adopted.
However, nonprofit organizations — as well as French and Chadian authorities — have questioned whether the children are really orphans. Unicef, which is now taking care of the children and attempting to resettle them in Chad, called the actions of Zoe’s Ark “illegal and irresponsible.”
The scandal has angered many Africans. Last month protestors took to the streets of the Chadian city Abeche to denounce Zoe’s Ark and hurled rocks at foreign journalists.
While French newspapers have reported that established charities, which were not named, tipped off French authorities about Zoe’s Ark, aid workers said they are concerned the incident may undermine the trust they have built with African leaders, as well as the 240,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad and other needy people.
“There is a concern that the incident would make the government and local communities suspicious that there would be attempts to snatch or abduct their children,” said Jane Warburton, director of the child-protection unit at the International Rescue Committee, a New York organization that operates on the dangerous border between Chad and Sudan, which is home to dozens of refugee camps.
Mistaken Identity
What’s more, one well-known nonprofit group was the victim of mistaken identity.
In Africa, Zoe’s Ark operates under the name Children Rescue; in Arabic, one of Chad’s primary languages, the name translates roughly to Save the Children.
To help distinguish itself from the French nonprofit organization, Save the Children, along with 20 other international relief organizations, released a public statement condemning the actions of Zoe’s Ark.
“As operational humanitarian agencies in eastern Chad, we would like to express our profound concern over the recent attempt to transport more than one hundred children outside of Chad,” said the coalition, known as the Coordinating Committee of Nongovernmental Organizations Working in Chad.
“We have always respected the rights of children in the communities we serve, and we will continue to integrate these fundamental principles into our work,” it said.
Such efforts seem to have paid off.
The national radio station in Chad has broadcast messages asking residents of Chad to distinguish between the alleged actions of Zoe’s Ark and other refugee relief aid.
Zoe’s Ark “should not be confused with all the important humanitarian work being done for the Chadian people. It’s an NGO that operated outside of the norms,” said Pahimi Padacké Albert, the country’s minister of justice, according to a press statement by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
But at least one African nonprofit leader is not so sure.
Greg Mills, director of the Brenthurst Foundation, in Johannesburg, argues that Zoe’s Ark, while an isolated case, speaks to a broader problem with Western nonprofit organizations.
He said the incident exposes the dangerous power and influence wealthy aid organizations wield in impoverished parts of Africa.
“Recent events in Chad over alleged orphan smuggling by an NGO illustrate if nothing else the degree of suspicion such relative power produces,” he wrote in an opinion article published in The International Herald Tribune.
Mr. Mills said that charities’ mind-set is a throwback to the colonial era and that philanthropy should instead be focused on bolstering African businesses and the continent’s economy.
“What Africa needs is extraordinary economic growth, not extraordinary pity,” he wrote. “That is why eventually Africa will tire of this new generation of imperialists, just as it rejected the last lot.”
‘Red Flags’
Despite the tongue lashing in an international newspaper and the images of charity employees in handcuffs, charities said they have not heard from donors concerned about how their money is being used in Chad or other parts of Africa.
Coco Ferguson, director of programs at the Institute for Philanthropy, a London organization that assists philanthropists with giving decisions, said that the scandal might make some Europeans more cautious about their giving in the future.
“Inevitably this affair will raise red flags in the minds of potential funders,” said Ms. Ferguson, “but funders who are better informed about how their money is spent make better long-term partners for the organizations they support.”
“The thousands of well-run NGO’s with a track record of responsible operations within Chad and the rest of Africa can weather this event and emerge stronger from it,” she said.
