In 2003 Mr. Itauma rescued three children from the hands of witch-hunters who dragged them to be killed in the nearby bush close to a market where he lives, because the local sellers believed the children were responsible for their poor sells of goods. He kept the children in his family home for safety while working to reconcile them with their families.

A week later, three orphans who were siblings also arrived at the market to beg for food. They were attacked and tortured but lucky that a woman led them to Sam’s family house where other ‘witch’ children were taking refuge. As the children kept trickling in, as a result of witchcraft stigma and torture, Sam approached the government in 2003 to take the children and keep them in the government centre. He was told that such children cannot be allowed to mix with normal children. He, therefore, decided to open a place for the abandoned stigmatized children in his hometown; with the help of The Catholic Church and Latter-Day Saint Charities. That was the beginning of CRARN Children Centre. 

Mr. Itauma’s campaign received a boost from the United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF) and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person and related matters (NAPTIP) a Nigerian Federal Government agency to facilitate the anti-witch-hunt campaign. A research report done by UNICEF in partnership with CRARN indicates that some religious preachers make a lot of money from deliberately labeling children as witches and wizards with claims of having powers to exorcise them of witchcraft spell while fleecing their parents of their hard earned money. This assertion is confirmed by the UK Observer report of December, 2007 investigative report:

“Evangelical pastors are helping to create a terrible new campaign of violence against young Nigerians. Children and babies branded as evil are being abused, abandoned and even murdered while the preachers make money out of the fear of their parents and their communities…” The report added that:

“Sam Ikpe Itauma is one of the few people in this area who does not believe what the evangelical ‘prophets’ are preaching. He opened his house to a few homeless waifs he came across, and now he tries his best to look after 131…” Itauma’s works have saved the lives of thousands of children who would have otherwise been buried alive, thrown into the river, locked up in toilet for days to die of hunger or piecemeal, abandoned in the bush, forced to eat a local, poisonous eseri berry, choked or strangled to death. It is estimated that more than 20,000 children might have being stigmatized as witches in Nigeria alone and the number of deaths not ascertained as cases like these are usually not reported to the police for fear of reprisal from the witch-hunters. Even if they are reported, influential men in the society work round the clock to get them off the police hooks.

By 2008, rescued children in the CRARN Centre were already gearing up to 300 in number. 

By 2010, children in the CRARN Centre were again gearing up to 300 in number while more than 600 were reconciled with their parents or reintegrated into the society.

CNN Connect the World reported about Itauma’s work in 2010 that:

“Pastors in southeast Nigeria claim illness and poverty are caused by witches who bring terrible misfortune to those around them. And those denounced as witches must be cleansed through deliverance or cast out… A crowd gathered around two brothers and their sister. Tears streamed down their mother’s face as she cast out her children from the family, accusing them of causing the premature deaths of two of their siblings with black magic.

 “I am afraid. They are witches and they can kill me as well,” she sobbed.

 The report added: Sam runs Child’s Rights and Rehabilitation Network, or CRARN — an orphanage that supports nearly 200 children. All of them were accused of witchcraft and cast out by their families, often after being tortured. The orphanage provides security, healthcare, nutrition and counseling.

 In the course of saving the lives of children and elderly weaklings, Sam has suffered series of attacks in the hands of powerful religious preachers who see his campaign to enlighten the people against false preaching, superstitious belief of witchcraft as a threat to their ‘business.’ As Dr. Olusegun Fakoya puts it in his article: The Many Faces of Helen Ukpabio.

“The world-wide reaction and publicity that followed the release of the award-winning documentary, ‘Saving Africa’s Witch Children‘, has been a source of consternation to those whose activities were exposed by the film. This film demonstrated the scale of the problem caused by the continued labeling of children as witches in South Eastern Nigeria. This practice has brought untold hardship to thousands of children. The burgeoning role of some Pentecostal churches was equally exposed, including their collusion and participation in the lies and untruths which lead children to be stigmatized as witches and later tortured, and which generate huge commercial success.

With the fast raise in awareness after 2009, CRARN was able to impact many more children than before. Especially big institutes and funds made it possible for CRARN to invest in security, food safety and buy land for new buildings. CRARN was also backed with food supply for all children for two years by a foundation and were able to build an aquaculture with the help of US Ambassador. Many more projects were tackled in that time and built a solid foundation for CRARN in the longterm.

COVID19 hit CRARN harder than expected; donations have fallen significantly, with 80% of donations during this time being backed by founder Sam Itauma. It was only through the consistent local volunteer support and the crops we harvest at the CRARN centre that we’ve been able to overcome these difficult times.