Ore Kaffo is no stranger to change. But despite many life-altering experiences, such as being abducted from her foster family as a child, perhaps one of the most significant events in her life has been joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Ore recently shared her experiences on a documentary called White Nanny Black Child, now available for streaming on Netflix in the UK. She spoke with Morgan Pearson on the All In podcast about her unique story and testimony of Jesus Christ.
Finding a Foster Family
As an infant, Ore was one of 70,000 children from West Africa placed unofficially in the foster care of white British families. Her Nigerian parents had recently immigrated to England seeking educational opportunities, and they needed to find childcare for their newly born daughter.
“Back in Africa, there’s a family network—extended family is a huge part of how Africans live,” Ore explains. “Now, arriving in England, they lost that network. … And so, what they decided to do as a people … was to find British families who would be willing to take in their children as babies mostly, to look after them while they got on with their studying and working at the same time.”
At the time, it was a common practice to photograph West African babies and include their pictures in local advertisements for foster families.
“It was almost like being a commodity and being placed up for sale,” Ore reflects. “Although the intention of our parents really was to find us appropriate childcare, so their intention was noble, we still were a piece of property being advertised in newspapers.”
This unregulated fostering practice, known as “farming,” involved no social workers or government vetting. But thankfully, Ore says “a wonderful family” answered her parents’ advertisement.
Ore lived with her foster parents—a Scottish man and English woman who couldn’t have children of their own—until a fateful day when she was almost seven years old.
Culture Shock
After Ore joined her foster family, Ore’s birth mother Victoria kept in touch, visiting every two weeks. Ore knew her as “Auntie Vicky.”
One Christmas, Victoria invited Ore’s foster mother to come to London for a Christmas event and bring Ore along.
“It was at this event that my birth mother kidnapped me,” Ore says. “She wanted me back and didn’t think that my foster parents would be prepared to hand me over after seven years of having had me as their child. …
“She wasn’t the person I recognized as my mom, so being taken from my [foster] mom and dad was quite traumatic for me.”
On top of this shock, Victoria took Ore to Nigeria two weeks later. Ore struggled with the change for a long time, not knowing anyone there or being able to speak the common language.
“I had an accent, and so I stood out,” she says. “And that then led to name calling and body shaming. And so, I grew up in this environment being put down constantly, being called names, never feeling like I belonged.
“And it was strange because I’m a Black child living in an African country, surrounded by Black people but still feeling alone and feeling like a minority.”
Ore remembers struggling with her self-esteem, praying to God and asking Him to make her someone else.
While she acknowledges now there were many positive things about having an African experience, she yearned for a sense of healing and belonging.
Opening Doors
Ore returned to England when she was 18 years old. Two years later, Latter-day Saint missionaries knocked on her door.
A few months before, Ore had started looking for a church to attend. While she allowed missionaries to teach her regularly, she didn’t feel ready to accept an invitation to attend church until about 10 months later.
Ore says a large factor in her decision to attend church was a specific missionary companionship who helped her to feel the truth of their message.
“It makes me a really big believer that some missionaries are sent to find some people, or some of us in this world in the [premortal] existence had said, ‘I promise to come and find you,’” Ore says. “I remember them teaching me the plan of salvation, and something about that really hit me hard.”
Two years after joining the Church, Ore served a mission in northern England.
Returning Home
In her early 20s before she served a mission, Ore reunited with her foster parents.
To prevent Ore from reaching out, Victoria told her that her foster family had moved. But Ore was determined to find them, so she decided to visit the home where she grew up and ask the current residents for a forwarding address.
Much to her surprise, when she knocked on the door, her foster father opened it. Immediately, he recognized Ore and said her name.
“It was very overwhelming for me,” Ore says. “I cried all the way back to London on the train. I couldn’t help it. I was sobbing publicly all the way home because I was so overcome with emotion. And from then on, we came back together as a family.”
While her foster parents have never been religious, they respected Ore’s faith and supported her decision to attend church.
From Victim to Victor Through Christ
Ore’s understanding of the gospel has helped her find peace with the pain she experienced as a child and feel increased empathy for her parents.
“My mom was a victim in all of this—the circumstances … made [her and my dad] give me up,” she says. “My foster parents were victims of the circumstance. It was a shame that a child had to get hurt because, unfortunately, I was hurt more than all of them. …
“Heavenly Father meant for this to be my journey. And that’s the thing that I’d like to put out there to anyone who’s listening is that life can be challenging, and … bad things do happen to good people.
“But I really believe that our Heavenly Father is there in the story because He sees the future. He knows more than we all know. And in order for us to achieve His purposes, we need to be sanctified in a way…. And so, these challenges and trials, they’re part of the sanctification process.”
Referencing 2 Nephi 2:25, her favorite scripture, Ore says, “We weren’t born just to exist or survive. We were born to thrive. We were born to grow, to become more like Christ, and to become more like God.”
Hear more about Ore’s story on the full All In episode, available in the player below or on your favorite streaming platform.
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