Mama Leeza Cares, Inc.
Why This Work Cannot Wait
Meet Rija – and understand why protecting special needs children in Madagascar is literally life or death.
This is What $10,000 Can Do in Madagascar
Build an animal shelter. Save lives. Send kids to university. Fund tutors for orphans who refuse to give up. Make childhood possible for 56 children who’ve never known it.
Let Me Tell You What Really Happens Here
At 60, I joined the Peace Corps to pursue a dream I’d carried since 1964. I ended up in Mahajanga, Madagascar, living on $200 a month. What I found changed everything.
I couldn’t ignore the suffering. Street dogs, so feared and mistreated here, were everywhere. I started feeding four dogs near my apartment. Then the orphanage children. Then the special needs kids whose families didn’t know what to do with them. One need led to another, and before I knew it, my small acts of kindness had grown into something much bigger.
Now I care for 56 orphaned and vulnerable children across three orphanages, plus 8 special needs kids, plus 45 rescue dogs and puppies. Every Saturday I run arts and crafts for 48 orphanage children who’ve never held a paintbrush, never made anything beautiful that was theirs alone. I take them to the beach. I teach them to sew and cook. I give them birthday parties — for most, it’s the first birthday celebration they’ve ever had.
But this year, everything ran out. My emergency funds went to keeping the dogs alive, keeping the kids fed, covering the daily crises that come with this work. DRYM mattress company donated beautiful new mattresses to Mangarivotra orphanage, but the children are sleeping on threadbare, worn-out linens. I haven’t had the funds to sew new ones.
And that’s just the linens. That’s the smallest part of why I need $10,000.
Here’s What $10,000 Actually Means
In Madagascar, this isn’t just about linens. This is about building infrastructure that saves lives and changes futures.
Mahajanga’s First Animal Shelter/Clinic
Open Mahajanga’s first animal shelter and boarding facility, staffed by veterinary students from the University of Mahajanga who’ll get college credit and hands-on experience they’ll never get in school. I’ll pay them a small transportation stipend. With so many expats here who own dogs, a boarding facility could generate operating fees for the entire operation. This is sustainable. This is transformative.
Tutors for Kids Who Refuse to Give Up
At Mangarivotra orphanage, there’s a 21-year-old named Josea. She’s still in 11th grade, years behind where she should be. But she’s NOT giving up. She wants her Baccalaureate degree so she can improve her life and move out of the orphanage for good. She needs a tutor. So do the other kids who are years behind in school but fighting to catch up. I’ve been paying for a tutor at Centre Fanovozantsoa for years — it works. These kids thrive when someone invests in them.
University Support & Dream Funding
After these kids graduate high school, if they want to go to university, get a job on a cruise ship (which requires high English skills), or start their own business, I want to help them realize their dreams. Like Faniry, a former street kid now starting her second year of university. Or the kids who want better lives and are willing to work for them. They just need someone to believe in them and help make it possible.
Yes, Also the Linens
Buy fabric for 56 unique sets of hand-sewn linens. Let me spend my days at the sewing machine again. Bring back this Christmas tradition where every child gets their own pattern — sunflowers, roses, stars, dreamcatchers — chosen just for them. Give these children the dignity of sleeping in something beautiful and new. Because they deserve to feel special.
Why This Work is Life or Death
One of our special needs kids, Rija, was murdered by his family earlier this year.
He was an orphan who’d ended up living with his grandmother on the other side of the island — someone none of us had ever met. My housekeeper made the three-day trek each way via bush taxi to take him there. When she arrived, they had no provisions for him. No mattress, no clothing, no toiletries. I wired money immediately to buy everything he needed.
Only about a month later, right before Christmas, Rija asked my housekeeper Nazirah if he could move back to Mahajanga. I just didn’t have the money. My emergency funds had long ago been spent caring for all the dogs and kids. I had to tell him no. I had no way of knowing the kind of people he was living with, no way to understand the danger he was in.
In February, his family murdered him with poison.
This is common here, though it’s illegal. A special needs child is considered a special burden, and many parents solve this problem by murdering the child or young adult with poison.
Had I had the funds, I would have absolutely let Rija come back to Mahajanga. But I didn’t. And now he’s gone.
All of my donors know about Rija. All my Facebook friends do too. I’d posted so much about him over the years — all the dental work we did rebuilding his smile, getting him into Finoana School, his decision to quit school, all the rest. This is the real world I have to contend with regularly.
People need to know what life is really like here. They need to know that when I ask for $10,000, I’m not exaggerating when I say this work saves lives.
From Peace Corps Volunteer to Full-Time Mama
How a 60-year-old woman ended up caring for 56 children and 45 rescue animals in Madagascar
It Started with Four Dogs
Living on $200 a month in Mahajanga, I couldn’t ignore the suffering around me. Street dogs, so feared and mistreated by local culture, were everywhere. I started feeding four dogs who lived near my apartment.
Then came the orphanage children who needed someone to care. Then the special needs kids whose families didn’t know what to do with them. One need led to another, and before I knew it, my small acts of kindness had grown into something I never could have imagined.
Every Saturday: Teaching Joy
Most of these 48 orphanage children had never held a paintbrush, never made anything with their own hands, never created something beautiful that was theirs alone.
So every Saturday, we gather. We paint, we fold origami, we cut and glue and create. Today we made Christmas stars. Last week it was something else. Next week, who knows? The point isn’t the craft — it’s the joy. It’s the confidence. It’s giving them a childhood they deserve.
The Tradition I’m Fighting to Restore
Hand-sewn linens: because every child deserves to be seen
For years, I gave each child something no one had ever given them before: their own unique set of bed linens, hand-sewn by me, in a pattern chosen just for them.
Twice a year — in June and at Christmas — I’d present each child with a drawstring bag containing their new sheets. No two children got the same pattern. I’d spend all year hunting for fabrics: sunflowers for one child, roses for another, geometric prints, tropical leaves, stars, hearts, dreamcatchers.
Because each child is unique. Each child deserves to be seen. To be valued. To have something that’s theirs and theirs alone.
This year, I haven’t had the funds. These children are sleeping on brand new DRYM-donated mattresses with worn-out, threadbare sheets. And it breaks my heart.
But the linens are just one part of what your support makes possible. The bigger vision — the animal shelter, the tutors, the university support — that’s what $10,000 really means here.
This is the Work Your Support Makes Possible
Fresh from Saturday arts & crafts and our daily work with the children
Christmas Stars
Teaching origami at Mangarivotra — the joy when they finish their creations
Creating Together
Every Saturday brings new skills, new confidence, and lots of laughter
First Time Artists
Many of these children had never held a paintbrush before our classes
New Linens Day
The tradition we’re working to bring back — every child with their unique pattern
Beach Trips
Field trips give these children experiences they’ll never forget
Learning Life Skills
Teaching children to cook, sew, and care for themselves and others
Home Sweet Home
Where 56 children sleep — now with new mattresses, waiting for new linens
Mangarivotra Orphanage
The government-run orphanage where we work every week
The Critters
45 rescue dogs depend on us — and soon, a real shelter
Help Us Build Something That Lasts
Your support doesn’t just buy linens. It builds Madagascar’s first animal shelter. It funds tutors for kids who refuse to give up. It sends former street kids to university. It prevents tragedies like what happened to Rija. It gives 56 children the childhood they deserve.