A former volunteer has spilled the beans over alleged skelm dealings at the Al-Noor Orphanage.
Among others, the overseas volunteer claimed manager Amina Okpara stole food meant for the orphans, leaving them hungry; staff took white bread and fed the brown bread to the birds instead of the kids; and also sold nice bed linen donated to the facility.
The volunteer claims food from Woolworths was allegedly diverted to Okpara’s house, reports the Weekend Argus.
“She would take children from the orphanage to her house so the food would be taken there. The kids would not get anything. The food that would get back to the orphanage was like nothing. The children would not get enough food and were always hungry,” says the volunteer.
Al-Noor staff were handed an eviction notice last week by the City of Cape Town but have not yet vacated the premises.
Facility manager Nkululeko Mboniswa says: “For now, we are here and still operating but with outreach projects like a soup kitchen for older people.”
The eviction notice came after a child at the orphanage alerted the Department of Social Development to the alleged sexual assault of a number of children at the facility.
Seventeen children were removed, and the department suspended the orphanage’s registration earlier this month.
Two days later, on 14 June, Okpara was arrested by the Hawks for fraud and corruption. She now faces further charges, including sexual offences.
It’s alleged Okpara redirected donor funds meant for daily operations of the centre into her personal bank account.
The volunteer says around 30 loaves of bread would be delivered to the orphanage and all the white bread would allegedly go to staff and the leftover brown bread would be fed to the pigeons.
A Woolworths spokesperson said: “We are looking into the matter and we will provide further details once we have all the information.”
Another red flag for the volunteer was when bed linen was delivered for the children but it was found to be sold when donors visited two days later.
“There was a time she tried to slip me some money to sweeten me up. I said no, another reason I left.”
Dutch charity Stichting Projecten Zuid-Afrika, which supported Al-Noor’s holiday school activities for a number of years, contacted the Weekend Argus and said it has asked an accountant to do a forensic investigation for them after staff refused to co-operate.”