Baby Farm: Is Evans Foundation Based On a Real Foundation?

The Evans Foundation, run by Doctor Oliver Evans and his wife, Barbara, serves as the primary antagonistic force of ‘Baby Farm.’ It traps innocent women inside and reduces them to child harvesters called “Makers.” Adanna, the protagonist, teams up with her allies inside the establishment and devises a plan to break free and bring the truth out into the open. However, the task proves to be much more difficult than she anticipates, owing to Evans’ power and influence. The Foundation started as a just organization, with the couple aiming to locate downtrodden women and improve their lives. Over time, however, greed, corruption, and a hunger for absolute control run their course, eroding these values. This results in the transformation of the Foundation into a symbol of the horrors humans are capable of.

The Evans Foundation is Vaguely Inspired by Real-Life Baby Farms

While the Evans Foundation is a fictional NGO created by Mo Abudu, Darrel Bristow-Bovey, and Heidi Uys, its creation is informed by the real-life baby farm crisis that has affected Nigeria. According to UNICEF (as reported by BBC), an estimated ten children are sold daily in the country, making it the third most common crime. Often, these harvesting centers disguise themselves as hospitals, orphanages, and NGOs. This tracks with the Evans Foundation and clinic, which initially lures young women such as Adanna with the promise of a comfortable life and maternity care in return for putting their children up for adoption. While the fictional name closely resembles The EVAN Foundation, an organization tackling neuroblastoma and other childhood cancers, the two are most likely unrelated, as the latter is based in Maryland.

Although the Evans Foundation may not be based on any specific establishment, it is likely inspired by several baby farms and factories, such as the farm in the city of Aba that was raided by the Nigerian Police in 2011. The farm was operating under the guise of a hospital and held over thirty teenagers captive, many of whom were pregnant. Another such police raid rescued twenty-three girls and four babies from a baby factory in Umuaka, a city on the eastern end of the country. A similar raid happens at the show’s end, bringing down the Foundation. However, the Evans are not held responsible for their crimes, pointing out a major difference between their Foundation and their real-life equivalents. At the same time, the latter are often tiny, unauthorized establishments. The Evans Foundation is a vast organization with enough connections and resources to have celebrity endorsements.

The Evans Foundation’s Inhumane Practices Scar Its Victims

Actor Onyinye Odokoro, who plays Adanna, also shed light on a different but equally prominent facet of the Foundation, the concept of sisterhood. She described her experience working with an NGO called Nurses of Initiative Campaign, where she engaged with many cases of domestic and systemic abuse inflicted on women. This enabled her to accurately convey how the women relied on each other as a way of coping with the horrors of The Evans Foundation, thus constituting an entire faction within the building, bonded by their shared trauma. The narrative, however, further touches on the group’s internal conflicts, which Oliver and Barbara Evans perpetuate. The show also touches on the exploitation of the Christian population of Southern Nigeria, as expressed through Barbara’s religious practices.

The Evans Foundation notably ropes in Cherise, an international actor desperate for children, hoping to spread their business globally. Her character is a possible representation of the wealthy elite of the country, who freely make these illegal deals to avoid the public gaze and stereotype associated with adoption, surrogacy, and infertility. The Foundation uses its political influence and medical renown to its advantage. They employ security, nurses, and cleaning staff and display the appearance of a benevolent organization while indulging in. While no large-scale organization with similar influence has yet been ousted as a baby factory, this fictional creation is a grim reminder of the possibility of such evil lurking right under everyone’s noses.