The story of the CRC is foundational to Helping Children Worldwide. Our relationship over the years has driven our work, our understanding of the adversity faced by children in the Global South, and our approach to global development and ethical alliance as a US-based NGO in a resource-rich environment.
What the CRC used to be is less important than what it is now. As the cornerstone of the Sierra Leone Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church’s work in child and family support, the CRC has become in international icon in the care reform movement. The HCW Director for Mission Advance and Partnership, Emmanuel “Nabs” Nabieu spent ten years of his childhood in residence there, six more as an employee, including three years as the Director of the CRC, and has been working side-by-side with them in his role at HCW every day since. Dr. Laura Horvath, our Senior Technical Advisor for Child Welfare and Global Engagement, was one of the first employees at HCW to take on the role of liaison with the CRC, after years in a volunteer leadership and policy-making position on our advisory boards. Together, the two of them brought care reform to the CRC, and to Sierra Leone. Mr. David T. Musa, Director of the CRC since May of 2026, has served in multiple roles there during his career. As head of the Child Support Program, then Executive Co-leader, then Senior Consultant for the Transition Coaching and Mentoring Division, he has led changes toward empowering and strengthening families and introducing a professional case-management and educated social work approach to the team he leads. In addition, he has represented the voice of the Global South in discussions on the global stage in many countries, including across the continent of Africa and in the United States. Deputy Director, Ganda Bassie, like Nabs, was an original resident of the orphanage and a care-leaver who was never reintegrated with his family during his childhood. He has led the CRC Alumni Association and is well suited to take their development work and family strengthening services to the next level.
The CRC used to speak of the work in caring for 40 children in residence, now they measure their impact in the hundreds of families they serve, and the thousands of children who benefit from their programs. You can read more about their work in stories of impact.