Toronto Star
August 5, 2002 Page: A1
Sierra Leone teen journeys from horror to a home Canadians welcome a victim of brutal African civil war
Byline/Source: By Natalie Alcoba Toronto Star
She barely speaks a word, but something in her deep brown eyes hints at the horrors they have seen.
They have been Maria-Tu Kamara's window to violence and anguish beyond the imagining of most 17-year-olds.
The timid teenager from Sierra Leone was 12 years old when she was kidnapped by rebel forces during the civil war that ripped through her country in the 1990s. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, and some survivors were left to live with painful physical reminders, in the form of mutilations and amputations. Maria-Tu is one of them.
But now those beautiful eyes - deep pools in a youthful face the colour of milk chocolate, soft in nature but hardened by life - have seen great kindness. Thanks to the tireless efforts of one Collingwood family, Maria-Tu arrived at Pearson International Airport on Saturday afternoon, leaving behind one life to start another.
It has been a long journey.
Eighteen months ago, Bill Wilson read an article in the Owen Sound Sun Times profiling the harrowing experiences of Maria-Tu during the war.
The rebel forces massacred her family, raped her repeatedly and forced her to participate in maiming other children. In the year she was held captive, the young girl from the northern town of Port Loko was mutilated and had her hands amputated. The words bled of pain and anguish, but it was a quote at the end of the story that touched Wilson: "I forgive the people who have done this to me," said Maria-Tu.
"When I saw that I was just blown away. I said, 'That must be someone with a big heart,'" said Wilson, 44. "I just wanted to get to know her," he said.
Wilson, with the support of his wife, Shelley, and son Richard, immediately went on a mission to find Maria-Tu and bring her to Canada to be part of their family. He made a phone call to a Sierra Leone humanitarian agency; on the other end, trauma counsellor Comfort Vincent answered.
Wilson told Vincent of his plan and begged for her help in locating the girl who had captured his heart. With only a name and a faxed copy of the photograph that ran with the story, she began to search for Maria-Tu, visiting thousands of child amputees living in camps in the capital city of Freetown. Optimism was reserved. Finally, months later, the Wilsons received incredible news: Vincent had found her.
Since then, the hurdles have been many for the petite girl who likes Bob Marley music and chocolate cake.
After she was twice rejected for a visa, the Wilson family spent months writing to the Canadian embassy in the region and getting letters of support from local MPs in an attempt to sway officials. In June, Maria-Tu was granted a six-month visitor's visa. Wilson said he will apply to extend the visa and then to adopt her. Lounging on the living room couch in her new home, Maria-Tu listened quietly to conversations among her new family and Vincent, who accompanied her to Toronto to help her settle in.
With her slender arms, she delicately examined a gold chain around her neck that was given to her as a welcome-home gift from Wilson. She reached for a glossy magazine and leisurely flipped through the pages, sometimes lingering on pictures of celebrities and makeup.
"If there's one thing that Maria-Tu loves, it's dressing up and looking good," said a laughing Vincent, who has spent the last year counselling the girl and teaching her English.
The Wilsons plan to hire tutors for Maria-Tu, who has never been to school. Helping Maria-Tu gather her braided black and caramel-coloured extensions into a ponytail, Vincent marvelled at how much the girl has changed since she first met her.
"At least now you can get Maria-Tu to smile and talk," she says, admitting that at first she was skeptical about the promises made by the Canadian family. Vincent has heard many empty promises from people pledging to help Sierra Leone's destitute children.
But Wilson's words were real, along with the dreams that keep coming true for Maria-Tu.
In a few weeks she will be fitted with new flesh-coloured prosthetic hands paid for by Kiwanis International, an organization devoted to helping children. The Wilsons, who have sent money and care packages to Maria-Tu over the past year, raised $9,000 from donations and door-to-door sales of T-shirts and sweatshirts featuring her picture. Wilson, who runs a vacation property rentals business, mortgaged his home to offset the remaining expenses, which totalled $20,000. He says he would do it all again in a heartbeat. "We're going to make her laugh so hard she's going to be glad she's here," he said.
CLARIFICATION A Monday story about Marie-Tu Kamara, a survivor of Sierra Leone's civil war, didn't make it clear that the Collingwood Kiwanis Club is donating the money for the teenager's new prosthetic hands. (August 7, 2002; page A2)