“Queen Doris” dreams a bigger dream and melts our hearts

Most of the girls at the MamaLand Children’s Village are orphans who have no mother or father. Over the years, the government began asking for MamaLand to occasionally consider taking in a few girls who are destitute and are vulnerable to succumb to poverty and/or neglect due to dire and extreme circumstances. Today we would like to introduce you to one such girl: Doris.

Doris, age 11, is actually from the town of Kabala, where the MamaLand Children’s Village was started. Sitting down to chat with her, I was immediately wowed by her warmth, openness and million dollar smile. This girl simply exudes goodness.

From early on, I was curious about her classic name as it seems quite uncommon for a girl her age. I had read that the name Doris has some Greek origins, meaning “Gift.” She happily explained to me that she had been named after a Queen, possibly thought to be the Paramount Chief Madam Doris Lenga-Caulker II of Kagboro Chiefton in Sierra Leone, pictured here. 

Our conversation started light: Grade in school? 5^th. Favorite color? Blue. Favorite animal? Dog.  Favorite food? Chicken. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I queried. She paused thoughtfully, “My father always told me that I should be a tailor so that I could make nice clothes for my family one day. I used to want to be a tailor but now that I am going to school and living here at MamaLand, now I want to be a bank accountant. I want to learn all about money. I’d still like to learn how to sew but I love school and want to learn a lot more.”

Our sweet Doris is a very bright girl, 2^nd her in her class. She emphatically shares how she loves school, especially social studies and math.  “I like hugging and making fun. I like to tell funny stories together and playing. I feel most happy when I am with my sisters.” During our visit, one of the other MamaLand girls became sick with a fever. It was Doris who jumped in right away and was so nurturing, bringing her younger sister, Serah, a drink, a cool cloth and hugging her. 

In talking with this lovely young lady, one would never fathom that her life was so very different just a couple years ago. The local chief, very concerned about her family situation and safety, had personally asked if Doris could live at MamaLand. Devin and I went over to talk with him about Doris and were taken aback when the chief brought us to the shack where she had been living. Our little “Queen”, so vibrant and radiating joy, had been living here. 

As we stepped into their single room, it was completely dark other than rays of sunlight streaming though the metal roof, riddled with holes. On the dirt floor lay a single mattress where Doris slept with her mother, father and special needs brother. We were there during the rainy season where Sierra Leone gets a massive 31 inches of rain a month. Devin and I later cried as we thought of them sleeping together on this single mattress on the ground, with rain pouring in on them from the roof. 

Doris’s home life is both complex and tragic. Doris explained to me that she has a mother, a father, a younger sister being raised by another family member far away and a younger brother. She spoke very affectionately of her little brother who is severely handicapped and much older than he appears. She filled in more details, “My brother can’t talk, walk, crawl or feed himself. I would play with him and carry him on my back when I wasn’t fetching water and firewood or digging up potatoes. I washed his dirty, poopy pants. My father told me that he is the way he is because he was fed some witch’s bones.” 

It is so challenging to have a special needs child in any country, but we can only imagine how hard it must be to have a child without the necessary resources and support, when you are just trying to survive day to day? 

Doris then began sharing about her father. “He used to be a rice farmer. He married 2 wives but his first wife died. He drank a lot of ‘rums.’ I would beg him to stop drinking, ‘Please stop! Please stop!’ but he would not listen to me. He would go out all night. Sometimes he would beat me. My father was drunk a lot and I felt very sad.”

And so, a couple years ago, Doris came to live at MamaLand. None of the daughters of MamaLand have arrived here via simple journeys. All come from tragedy and loss, although some in different ways than others. After we met Doris’s dad and saw her former home, Devin gave Doris a big hug and asked her how she felt being back there. With such profound insight, so wise beyond her years, she said to him, “Whenever I see them, I remember the suffering we have suffered. I get tears in my eyes. When I am older I want to build a big house so that I can live with my family all together in one house, including all of my MamaLand sisters and help take care of everyone.”

As we concluded our conversation together, I asked Doris a couple final questions, “Doris, what does Jesus mean to you and how can people in the United States be praying for you?” She articulated her thoughts so endearingly, “Jesus is my Savior. We call on His name and He is always there for us. I want to follow Him and read my Bible every day. I want to put him 1^st in my mind so I know what is good and bad for me.” She concluded by requesting, “Please pray for me that I can learn a lot so I can be someone in the future and be happy. Pray that we at MamaLand can be together always. I thank God for where I am.”

I marveled that one so young and who had endured such hardships in her short life could radiate such remarkable positivity and generosity of spirit. How heartwarming to hear that her ultimate dream is to be able to care for her family and live forever with her 19 sisters. Her dream in life was to learn how to sew and now that she is not fighting to survive each day, she has been empowered to dream bigger dreams. After hearing about her goal to work at a bank, Devin took her aside and said, “You can absolutely work as an accountant at the bank, but I think you could run the entire bank! Go for it, Doris!” 

Doris truly is a Gift to the MamaLand Children’s Village, to her fellow sisters, to her house mothers, to her family who is fighting to survive in impossible circumstances and to everyone fortunate enough to come in contact with this young, delightful Queen. 

Thank you so much for reading Doris’s story and for remembering her and the other girls at MamaLand in your prayers. If you would like to sponsor her or any of the other girls or to read more stories, please click here.