Teenager Reaches Out to Ease the Suffering of Tijuana Orphans

TIJUANA, Mexico —  She calls them her angels, the abandoned children of El Faro Orphanage. But to them, Shade Ogunleye is the angel, a young Mother Teresa in the making who visits each month bearing gifts of blankets and food and most important of all, love.

The tall teenager from Santa Clarita took on the orphanage as her own personal mission 10 months ago through a nonprofit organization she founded with her parents to provide poor and abandoned children with basic necessities.

Since then, she has crossed the border more than a dozen times, hauling clothes, toys, toiletries and appliances to the cramped, privately run orphanage that relies on donations to survive.

“She’s been a blessing because she brings much-needed things and helps with everything,” said orphanage director Guadalupe Villavicencio, who single-handedly runs the shelter she founded eight years ago.

On her visit last month, Shade played with the kids and gave them gifts, such as hair accessories and small toys. She carefully laid colorful hand-woven blankets on each bed, which three or four children share every night in rooms that reek of bleach mixed with the stench of a clogged toilet.

At dinner time the children crowded into the cafeteria, where Shade cradled 4-year-old Alejandra, who was too tired to eat. She cried as Shade fed her spoonfuls of noodles and potatoes. Usually, their meals are a soup-like mixture made from combining any available canned food.

“It’s not right and it’s not fair that these kids have to be here,” Shade said.

Babies wailed and children cried inconsolably, while others huddled in dark corners of the rooms. Some were mentally ill, and among the residents were 10 siblings and their mother, whose husband was in prison for sexually abusing one of them, Villavicencio said.

The ramshackle orphanage is perched on a hill where old tires serve as a makeshift retaining wall. The children’s only view through a wire fence overlooks a field of litter and a busy street.

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Ana Maria Mora, a spokeswoman for the city of Tijuana, said she could not comment about Shade’s visits until an investigation into the matter was completed.

Shade’s road to the shelter began four years ago as an 11-year-old baby-sitter, when she discovered she had a strong affinity for children. She decided she wanted to build an orphanage to help those less fortunate.

“I am a person with a mission,” she said. “I feel so deeply in love with these kids. I wanted to find other people to go out with me and we can change the world.”

She began scouring libraries and the Internet, looking for an orphanage that needed help. When she typed in the word “orphanage,” she found listings from California to Romania. She wanted to help one close, but local shelters had swimming pools or basketball courts, and she wanted to find one in dire need of her help, she said. When Shade found El Faro Orphanage on the Internet, she called and spoke to Villavicencio and asked for directions to visit.

“I went down to Mexico, which is only three hours away from here, and the situation was completely different,” she said.

Shade said her parents and her religious upbringing inspired her to form the nonprofit Kids International Foundation. Her father, Tunde, is a motivational speaker for teenagers who always told her: “If I want to do something, no one can stop me but me.” Her mother, Alison, an editor at Fox 11 News, helps her sort through donations and drives her to Mexico.

At the start of her crusade, Shade stockpiled the donations in her living room.

“People just started dropping stuff off at our front door,” said Alison Ogunleye. Later, Canyon Country drywall contractor Steve Wynn donated a storage unit.

Alison Ogunleye said she admires her daughter’s will.

“I support this person with a mission. Shade has an incredible love for people less fortunate,” Ogunleye said. “She’s very mature and she speaks very well. I think she’s done tremendous work.

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To draw attention to her effort, Shade created a slide show that she screened at churches and organizations to solicit donations and recruit volunteers. She persuaded grocery stores to donate food certificates and a local Boy Scout troop to collect blankets.

In one of the newsletters she produces periodically and sends to about 200 supporters, she wrote: “These children really don’t deserve to live the way they do and I constantly wonder why them and not me. I believe that’s what pushes me to do everything I can for these children.”

El Faro houses about 60 kids ranging from 3 weeks to 17 years old. Nearly half are infants. They live in cramped rooms filled with bunk beds, the younger girls in one room and the boys in another. Teenagers have their own section.

Villavicencio, who used her own funds to open the private shelter with seven children, said the orphanage helps kids stay off the streets. Many children remain at the orphanage until the age of 18. Sometimes infants are left at the door in the middle of the night, others are dropped off by friends or relatives. Villavicencio said no child is turned away.

“They’re from drug-addicted families and prostitute mothers, or parents who are too poor to support them,” said Bernard Gutierrez, a 40-year-old volunteer who lives at the orphanage. “They are all abandoned.”

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Shade, whose ethnic heritage is Nigerian, Polish and French, learned Spanish from her Guatemalan nanny. Her name is short for Mofolashade, which means “I wear my wealth as a crown” in Nigerian and her middle name, Ashani, means “a special person.” The 6-foot-1 freshman at William S. Hart High School is a high-jumper who enjoys dancing, hanging out at the mall with friends, playing basketball and listening to music.

“Shade has a heart of gold, and she’s very courageous,” said Wynn, who initially heard Shade speak at the First Christian Church of Canyon Country. “She does this for the kids, not for herself.”

Shade said she draws strength from little Alejandra, whom she called courageous.

“She’s here day in and day out,” Shade said. “Whenever I have a problem, I just think of her and how strong she is. Her mother is out there, and Alejandra doesn’t want to be here. Reality really sets in.”