About The Organization

On behalf of the entire Board of Trustees and Staff of Morgan Hill, I wish to extend our best and profound wishes of the New Year to all our stakeholders, adoptive parents, concerned individuals and entities, that partnered with us to provide several critical interventions to ameliorate some of the issues that confront hundreds of OVCs in Cross-River State, Ondo State, Akwa-Ibom State and Lagos State of Nigeria,

Your contribution and valued partnership in the past two years has in no small measure, enabled us scale up our adoption/family integration programs for orphaned/abandoned children, provide medical support for several children of indigent families unable to afford cost of treatment and to conduct support initiatives for institutionalized children.

Regrettably, with the country enduring an ongoing economic downturn, rising unemployment, extreme poverty, scourge of violence & criminality as well as a drop in all development standards; it is the children (especially OVCs) that are worst affected. Some of the negative trends we are observing are;

  • Upsurge of children abducted, killed or displaced by conflict.
  • Drop in school enrollment due to inability of parents to finance the education costs of the children and wards
  • Child mortality index has worsened
  • Child abandonment has increased
  • More children have become orphaned due to the issues highlighted
  • Inability of care facilities and institutions to provide shelter and adequate care for the OVCs

It sometimes appears that all the work that we and many more organizations have put in, are like drops of water in a mighty ocean.

But we as stakeholders and civil society must not relent. Morgan Hill Children Foundation’s resolve remains to continue to promote actions that guarantee the right of all children, whether in the communities we operate or beyond, to the nurture and care of a family environment, as well as to initiate measures that enhance OVC’s ability to face the future and play an empowered role in shaping his/her tomorrow.

The Year 2019 heralds a new opportunity to ramp up our interventions and we intend to do just that. Some of the key deliverables for us are

  • To provide child placement and foster care arrangement for at least 200 OVCs and organize enrichment programs for many more.
  • We will organize a 2nd edition of the US-Nigeria Adoption Conference.
  • We will continue the Rehabilitation of dilapidated orphanage buildings and donation of various domestic materials to improve the welfare of over 1000 orphans exposed to hazardous living conditions in the States we work in.
  • Focused Capacity Programs: We hope to scale up our efforts to identify, train and provide seed grants for outstanding/promising institutionalized children, so that they can fend for their selves outside the facilities.
  • Getting more states to standardize their laws and process governing child care and adoption is key to us. Our target is that at least 3 new states will be onboarded into the US-Nigeria Adoption Program.

These and many more initiatives will be our focal point for the year.

Finally, I would like to use the opportunity to thank all our numerous stakeholders for the support towards “the work” we do.

I hope you find this website useful in understanding what we do as an organization.

Please feel free to reach us at info@morganhillchildrenfoundation.com or call (234)803-710-5971

 
Esu Bassey-Duke
Chairman, Board of Trustees.

Our Founders

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Esu Bassey-Duke

Chairman, Board of Trustees

He came on board after a commendable banking career spanning over 13 years serving in notable Financial Institutions including Standard Chartered Bank and Oceanic Bank amongst others. He worked in critical segments such as Investment Banking, Corporate & SME (Commercial) Banking and Financial Control.

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Etinyin Bassey-Duke

Grand Patron, Member Board of Trustees

He is a Traditional Ruler & Clan Head in Calabar South Local Government Area of Cross-River State. A trained Archaeologist from the University of Birmingham.

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Ms. Ini Isang

Secretary, Board of Trustees

Ini Isang is a field geologist working in an Abuja based firm.

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Utibe Bassey-Duke

Member, Board of Trustees

Utibe is the foundation's Program Director and coordinator of all adoption matters. She is pioneer of Morgan Hill Children Foundation. MHCF was birthed from her long standing concern for abandoned and vulnerable children.

Our Team

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Utibe Bassey-Duke

Program Director

Utibe is the foundation's Program Director and coordinator of all adoption matters. She is pioneer of Morgan Hill Children Foundation. MHCF was birthed from her long standing concern for abandoned and vulnerable children.
She holds a post graduate diploma in Social Works from the University of Ibadan and has spent the last 10 years working in various capacities as a care giver, adoption consultant, and child advocator in Cross-River, Akwa-Ibom, and Lagos State. She has undergone extensive trainings in Child Psychology, Parental Counseling, Child Care & Protection, First Responder Treatment, and Homestudy Reporting services.
Utibe has personally supervised the adoption of over 40 adoptions to various counties Such as Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy and now the United States and Canada. MHCF uses this wealth of experience to perpetuate its adoption services as well as its project programs around Nigeria

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Esu Bassey-Duke

Associate Director

Esu is a founding trustee of Morgan Hill Foundation and he recently joined the staff team on a full time capacity. He assumed the position of Associate Director with the responsibility of coordinating the advocacy campaigns and social welfare programs of the Foundation. He is also required to implement strategies and systems to grow internal capacity, strengthen our processes, and expand stakeholder engagement and the scope of the organization’s footprint.
He came on board after a commendable banking career spanning over 13 years serving in notable Financial Institutions including Standard Chartered Bank and Oceanic Bank amongst others. He worked in critical segments such as Investment Banking, Corporate & SME (Commercial) Banking and Financial Control.

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Sheila Mary Eweh

Admin/Adoption Officer

A Business Administration graduate from Covenant University Ota. Sheila is committed to working with absolute integrity, dedication and discipline. As an adoption officer she is responsible for facilitating the adoption process for both the family that is adopting and the child who is being adopted. She works with children who are not supported by and are legally separated from their biological parents. She works together with the government to place orphaned children in adoptive homes.
Sheila also brings her years of experience in the administration department to the organization. She oversees the operations of the adoption office and handles all administrative matters in running the organization.

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Patrick Mese

Adoption and research officer

Patrick serves as the Adoption and Research Officer. He holds a Master Degree in Social Work from the University of Ibadan. His professional experience of over three years has been in the care of orphans and vulnerable children by acting in the capacities of Social Worker and Administrator in orphanage.
He joined Morgan Hill in January 2018 with a drive to empower orphans and abandoned children by providing them homes through adoption where they can grow adequately and healthily to enjoy the parental love they are being deprived of by institutionalization. He achieves all these by passionately advocating, conducting social investigation and research in the best interest of the children.