Originally published 2020-10-21.
Letty McMaster is a British woman from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, who went to Iringa in southern Tanzania at 18 to volunteer at an orphanage for one month, and ended up building a home for the children she met there. After the orphanage was closed by the local council, she became legal guardian to the nine children left without a place to live, later took in more young people from the streets, and runs the UK charity Street Children Iringa, which she registered in 2015. In 2020, at 26, she was raising 14 children while finishing her studies and fundraising in England.
Her story spread widely that autumn. Below is what is known about it, what the charity does today, and what it shows about the difference between short-term volunteering and long-term care.
From a gap-year month to a life's work
Reports from 2020 place the start of the story in 2012, when McMaster planned a short volunteer placement before going to university. Iringa is a highland town about 500 km southwest of Dar es Salaam, and like many Tanzanian towns it has children living and working on the streets, some orphaned and some who have left difficult homes.
The month turned into three years. According to the UK government's Points of Light profile, many of the children at the orphanage had suffered physical and mental abuse. McMaster later described the abuse as horrendous and said she could not leave the children in that situation. Instead of going home, she stayed in the area, raised money for their medical care and schooling, and pushed for change.
When the orphanage closed
The turning point came when the local council shut the orphanage; Kenyan outlet The Standard dates the closure to 2016. Nine children were left homeless. McMaster fought for permission to open her own family-style home in Iringa and took them in, becoming their legal guardian.
Over the following years five more young people joined the household, children she had met on the streets. That brought the family to 14, which is where the widely shared headline came from. Some outlets wrote that she had "adopted" all of them, and others that she was guardian to nine; the most careful accounts describe guardianship of the original nine and care for the wider group. Guardianship and adoption are different legal arrangements, so it is worth being precise: she took legal responsibility for the children's welfare in Tanzania, and she has spoken of being a mother figure to the younger boys and more like a big sister to the teenagers.
Street Children Iringa: what the charity does
McMaster registered Street Children Iringa as a charity in England and Wales in 2015 (charity number 1171821). Its website lists four main strands of work:
- The Home, the family house where the children McMaster raised grew up.
- The Safe House, a place for children coming in off the streets.
- Rehoming, work to settle children with relatives or in stable homes where that is safe.
- Our Girls, a programme focused on girls, who face particular risks on the street.
The charity reports that around 150 children have been rescued from street life so far. Funding has come largely from sponsored challenges, private donors and an annual charity ball in the UK, which pay for running costs, medical treatment and school fees.
For years McMaster split her time, living in Iringa for most of the year and returning to England for a few months to fundraise. Along the way she completed a degree in development studies at SOAS, University of London.
How the children are doing
In her interviews McMaster put the focus on the young people rather than herself. She described how hard the adjustment from street life can be: after trauma, learning routines, trusting adults and settling into school takes time. She also spoke proudly about where some of them had got to by 2020. One boy she had looked after for seven years was top of his year at a leading private school. A 19-year-old young woman had been elected chair of her year group at university and won an internship with an international NGO. Another was training to become a tour guide at a national park, and two had recorded songs played on local radio.
She has called the children her whole life and said she feels blessed to have two families, one in England and one in Tanzania.
Recognition
McMaster received a Points of Light award, a UK prime ministerial award for outstanding individual volunteers. In his letter, Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised her for building a lasting legacy and a permanent home for vulnerable children in Tanzania.
What her story says about "voluntourism"
There is an uncomfortable side to this story that McMaster's own experience brings out. Short orphanage placements for foreign volunteers became hugely popular in the 2000s and 2010s. Child-protection organisations, UNICEF among them, have since warned that many children in residential institutions have at least one living parent, that some orphanages are run partly to attract donations and volunteers, and that a stream of short-term visitors can harm children who form attachments and then lose them again.
McMaster's response was the opposite of a short visit. She stayed, took legal responsibility, worked through local authorities and built a family home rather than another institution. The charity's emphasis on rehoming children with family where possible fits the direction that child-welfare experts now recommend.
If you are thinking of helping children abroad, a few practical questions help:
- Does the organisation try to keep children with their families, or reunite them, where it is safe?
- Is it registered and transparent about its accounts?
- Does it carry out background checks and have a written child-protection policy?
- Does it avoid using children's photos and stories in ways that could expose them?
- Would your money or skills do more good from home than a short placement would on site?
Not everyone can move to another country to raise children, and nobody should feel they have to. But a regular donation to a well-run local organisation, or skills such as fundraising, accounting or teaching offered over the long term, can support the same kind of stability that changed things for the children in Iringa. You can learn more or donate through Street Children Iringa.
Sources: Street Children Iringa (official site); Points of Light: Street Children Iringa; The Standard (Evewoman): British woman, 26, becomes mum to 14 orphans; original interview published by LADbible (October 2020).
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