sherman and i am your host and my guest today is morgan weinberg and two thousand and ten when morgan was eighteen years old she went to haiti to volunteer after the earthquake essentially she has never left except to further her commitment to the children and families in haiti haiti is now her home and she is the co founder and coordinator of little footprints big steps little footprint big steps was founded to aid in rescuing children from situations of abuse slavery homelessness more severe neglect in haiti they do this by reuniting families supporting education and opportunities for self sufficiency and dignity through their programs and services and collaboration's we're talking to morgan today via skype from haiti welcome morgan i think you know thank you for doing this interview and you know i'm going to start by sharing a little video clip from your web site that kind of starts to tell your story and then we'll go into some detail so let's watch that with these children can be removed from dangerous situations in new delhi and given the care that they need this safe house is different than an orphanage in not the goal is to reunite children with their families and help those families just build sustainable lives they're going to grow a lot to be amazing he an amazing leaders in their community i never had a question and i'm lying about giving up that was never an all right so we saw that video clip and it says a lot so let's go back to the beginning where you went there as a volunteer and you got to this orphanage that was run by a family for about twenty years and we all have visions of what an orphanage is presumably what it should be taking care of children and nurturing them and so when you were arrived just this volunteer what was the owner's perception of what you were doing there villages where the people were poverty stricken and they would go into churches and give these talks saying give us your children we'll give them an education we'll give them medical attention and the parents i mean how terrible it is to give up your child that you give up your child for something better not knowing that they will be abused neglected souls being i it's just horrifying and you know i think  is that you know we don't understand poverty in that way or to that level and she was getting international aid so she was using that money for herself that if the children did get anything and be responsible and hold people accountable so i want to get to what you did because what you did was and one of the things that you said in one of the clips which to me is extraordinary is giving up was never in  question you were just never going to give up so you were committed to these children and you were committed to making a difference and so one of the other things you mention is that this is one of six hundred orphanages in haiti that is listed as not doing a good job so to me that would be so overwhelming you know you would just want to run away and give up but let's talk about what you did do instead not to lucy i mean after initially mistreated because the kids were afraid to tell the truth and they told their parents you know to come get them but many of the parents when they didn't come to meet their children the parents were actually beaten one  with the shit and had to go to the hospital and had to return three times before she was actually able to leave with her daughter and other parents came and were able to meet with their children but orange on a refused getting the local community involved you know there's that expression it takes a village to raise a child and clearly you have taken that to heart it takes a country to raise a child and so it's really not just looking at the problem of how do i feed this child but how do i create a future for this child and what you're doing is connecting them with their families but then creating some kind of sustainability for their families and  run out of time and i don't want to miss the opportunity to explain to people that first of all you're twenty six now i'm twenty or twenty four and you are the legal guardian of how many children three ok legal guardian of three and mother of hundreds in a sense and also related to entire families and putting families together and creating a future for them so it's really quite shockingly extraordinary so i just want to acknowledge you for that one of the other things is clearly you need money and it's not this so please send money because you know we we just need it and but i read where eighty nine percent of donations used eighty nine percent of donations are used directly for the kids only eight point six percent on administrative costs and two point four on fundraising so you know and you say it might take how much to educate one child for a year the beginning read between hundred and twenty three hundred twenty for the entire and then as you said you know you also go in and teach the parents provide sometimes chickens goats something to help sustain them so it's not just like throwing money at the problem it's tracking and following through and keeping in touch with so before we complete we are going to show a little video clip that talks about what you do but i'd like to just i'd like to read what your kind of it appears on your home page and it's a quote from jimi hendrix that is kind of your mission statement when the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace so really you are a living example of that because clearly the woman at the orphanage it was all about the love of power and money and your turning that entirely around so before we show this last video clip i just want to thank you for doing what you and you know i tend to magine as an eighteen year old going off to another country learning the language choosing it at your home and making it your life's mission to take care of the children of a country so really extraordinary thing to were going to watch this little video clip and then we'll come haiti's orphanages were of one before the two thousand magine them now there's nothing new about how these children come to our senses often they're not true arsons they have homes she founded little footprints big steps to end this her goal is to reunite children with their families and address the problems that caused their parents to abandon them she's starting by giving them food and paying for their education but she needs your help there is a sponsorship program available on her site and photos of mostly kids and how much it costs to feed and educate them for a year when she has a sponsor she can work in the turning children to their homes because the best care for a child comes from all right so that video clip lets people know how they can contribute and again it doesn't take much we are so privileged and i think it's not a bad thing it's just we have to remember to enjoy being privilege but also to know that three hundred dollars a year can change an entire family life for ever and it doesn't even have to be three hundred dollars so i invite everybody to phone you contact you