BY Shallon S. Gonlor
NIMBA COUNTY — A 3-month-old male baby found at a riverside in Gbanlia Town has been discharged from a health care center and is in foster care in the town. The baby who is now temporarily named ‘Success Nimba’ was discovered by two residents who had gone to the river around 2:00 pm on Tuesday, July 30, 2024.
The child was found along the Ganta-Saclepea highway between Karnwee and Gbanlia, and the case was reported to Gbanlialocal leaders who invited the Liberia National Police, Women and Children Protection Section (WACPS) in Saclepea City. Referred to the LNP/WACPS in Ganta Zone One Base for further investigation informed the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection whose joint placement was done to trace the baby’s family.
Admitted and discharged from the Hope for the Nation, a health care center for alternative care in Ganta City, the three-month-old baby boy abandoned by his parents is reportedly suffering from malnutrition. According to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection’s child tracking tools, specifically on medical history disclosed that the male child has serious medical problems.
After weeks of discovery, the Gender Ministry alternative care coupled with police ongoing investigation, the child’s biological parents had not come forward and there is no information about the mother’s or father’s identity and whereabouts. Under temporary care, the possibility of the child obtaining the needed medication and nutritional food to recover is impossible as his caregiver, Nelly Jimmy cannot afford to provide, while the Gender Ministry local office has limited support.
FOSTER PARENT, NELLY JIMMY
An elderly woman of Gbanlia Town, Nelly Jimmy is voluntarily serving as the foster parent to the baby abandoned by his biological parents. A foster parent is someone who provides a stable, supportive living environment for a child who cannot live with biological parents due to family disruption, abuse, or abandonment. Some children stay in foster care for weeks, some for years. According to Nelly, as such, she is volunteering and striving to provide care to save the life of the male child.
Jimmy said she did not know and had never seen the parents of the child anywhere before, but she chose to provide care as the result of humanity and a concerned mother of all. “I have no family connection with the parents of this child and the whereabouts of the baby’s biological parents is still unknown. I am only doing this for the sick of God, children, and as a mother. I have several children and grandchildren, so I know the pain women undergo to give birth”. said Nelly Jimmy who has been a foster parent for weeks.
She stressed that the child currently under her care was taken to her through the efforts of two community members who rescued the baby from a riverbank. Nelly Jimmy said the baby is believed to belong to a lady with an alleged mental disorder who was seen passing through the town with the baby in her hands. According to her, a few hours later the baby was heard crying in the bush near the motor road at a river right by the town.
Noting that when the child was taken to her, she agreed to provide foster care after the baby was turned over and immediately contacted the police who confronted the Gender Ministry local office in Nimba County about the abandonment case of the baby. There is no “ideal” foster family, therefore I accepted to help heal and find stability for the child to achieve independent living, acting as the role model until the biological family is found. Jimmy said.
However, Nelly Jimmy committed herself to providing a comprehensive service to ensure that the children live healthy and happy lives despite their poor health conditions. Madam Jimmy meanwhile added that her foster care services are designed to meet the evolving needs of the child placed in her care, complaining about the lack of medication and food. She wants national and international humanitarian groups and individual support for abandoned and malnourished child welfare.
At the same time, the Women and Children Protection Section of the Liberia National Police in Ganta City, Nimba County is still searching for the mother of a 3-month-old baby. The General Police Commander of Ganta Zone One Base, Inspector George Cooper revealed over the weekend to WomenVoices’correspondent, asking for the public’s help to find her.
Inspector Cooper disclosed that the biological mother of the male baby is yet to be identified though a lady believed to come from the child’s biological mother’s side is claiming ownership. The lady who was identified was not disclosed, according to the Police Commander reported that the baby belonged to her sister who was suffering from mental health.
According to Inspector Cooper, the purported sister narrated to him that her sister yet to be identified escaped the place where she was carried to seek traditional treatment. He quoted the lady as saying since her sister escaped from the herbalist they have been searching for her all through to know her whereabouts including the baby.
The Police Commander of the Women and Children Protection Section lamented that he in collaboration with the Gender Ministry local office of Nimba denied the woman access to the child but further referred her to the central office of the ministry for a permit. Echoing similar views, the Nimba Coordinator of the Women and Children Protection Section, Nimba Office, Madam Yaah Belleh Suah said that her ministry has put in efforts to discover the proper identity of the infant child.
She contended that the recent case is not the first time, stating that numerous cases of such happened decades ago. The two former local leaders’ statements were contained in separate interviews during an official one-to-one interview conducted over the weekend in Sanniquellie and Ganta respectively.
