Little Footprints, Big Steps - International Development Organization
Our childcare facility is a combined effort and collaboration between the organizations Global Family Philanthropy and Little Footprints, Big Steps. Both organizations are eager to provide loving care to Haiti's most vulnerable children, and to promote sustainable development and strong families within Haitian communities. Our childcare facility is located in the city of Les Cayes, and we also support families accross the country through a sponsorship program.
Our facility is not an orphanage, but a transitional safe house. Children rescued from situations of abuse, slavery, homelessness or severe neglect have been placed in our care by Haitian authorities. We provide a family setting for these children, with security and 24 hour supervision. We provide at least 3 nutritionally dense meals daily and try to accomodate each individual child's dietary needs for optimal health by providing supplements such as vitamins and special foods. In our facility, children will recieve basic medical care and regular medical check ups. If a child has more serious medical conditions, we will arrange for these to be addressed and treated. Shelter, tutoring, and therapeutic services are also provided to children in our safe house. Our goal is to help these children, not only physically, but also in developing psychosocial and coping skills that their traumatic pasts may have deprived them of.
In addition we aim to find each child a sponsor for annual education costs. As these children regain their health, they will eventually be reunited with their biological families or placed in a secure and trustworthy orphanage, such as the Global Family Philanthropy home. All children who come into our care are followed up on, regardless of where their permanent home is.
In addition, we aim to offer support to the families of children who have been re-integrated into their communities. This is through managing school sponsorship programs, providing food aid to needy children and creating income-generating projects in impoverished communities.
We are a Registered charity with charitable status under the income tax act- 84792 2101 RR0001
For further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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See us on facebook!
March 18th - Wathson Dena is going back to school TOMORROW. After a year on the streets, he has settled in at his home. He has a uniform, he has schoolbooks, he has running shoes. He has a home and a family. We are so proud of him!!!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/littlefootprintsbigsteps
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http://www.facebook.com/#!/littlefootprintsbigsteps
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New Video by Developing Pictures
__________________________________________________________________________________________A thank you to sponsors for all of their wonderful support: Wistly and Pierre have been able to escape a situation of abuse, slavery and neglect in Haiti's corrupt orphanage system. Thanks to Developing Pictures Photography for the videos!
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TEDx featuring Little Footprints, Big Steps - continuing public awareness
On Sunday, November 13, McGill hosted its third annual TEDx event at Bain-Mathieu on Ontario Est. The event brought together 15 speakers, about half of whom were McGill students, to share their reflections on the theme of “Redefining Reality.”
TED is a nonprofit organization whose slogan is, “Ideas worth spreading.” TEDx, an offshoot of TED, brings people together in local, self-organized events to share the TED experience and spark discussion.
The event featured Morgan Wienberg, founder of Little Footprints, Big Steps and primary caretaker for over 75 children in Haiti. For Wienberg – who, at age nineteen, decided to forgo university to care for over 75 victimized children in a Haitian orphanage – redefining reality means changing your perspective and stepping outside the box.
“[Redefining reality] means taking into account other peoples’ perspectives. Make sure your eyes are not the only ones that you’re looking through,” she said.
“Don’t let the expectations of society or your own expectations of yourself and your comfort zone stop you,” she continued. “If it’s never been done, who cares? You can do it.”
-Annie Shiel
Morgan shared the following information at the Tedx presentation:
When you hear the word ''orphanage'', what comes to mind? A refuge for children whose parents have suffered tragic deaths?
...If you had the chance to look deeper - to look through the eyes of an orphan - your perception of this word may change.
This year, I chose to live alongside the 75 desperate children of a Haitian orphanage. I experienced the unseen struggles these children - my children - went through each day. My understanding of the word ''orphanage'' - and of the word ''orphan'' - has completely changed. I've never seen anything more frightening than Haiti's orphanage system.
Open your eyes and take another look at the children who live in this orphanage. Are they in a home... or are they trapped and tortured by a corrupt system of institutions? The for-profit orphanage, for instance, is a dangerous spider that thrives in impoverished nations. The spider I lived with was exploiting vulnerable children to lure in international aid.
A complex web leads children - like those I lived with - into neglecful orphanages or cycles of slavery. This web is made up of extreme poverty, difficulty accessing education, lack of family planning, inefficient social services, hunger, and an overwhelming need for medical care - all intertwined. These struggles are magnified in the lives of a country's most vulnerable families.
Haitian families, for example, are often very large. Many have only one parent, who is unemployed. These parents become desperate for a way to feed, clothe and educate their children. They feel trapped in the web of poverty. So when a spider, such as a corrupt orphanage or a child trafficker, walks by and offers to take children to a place with more opportunity, parents are eager to believe this is true. They give away their child. Yet child abandonment such as this allows children to be placed directly in the mouth of the spider. Thousands of children in Haiti are being beaten, burned, sold, used as slaves, kicked onto the streets and completely exploited...and their parents have no idea.
- Morgan Wienberg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NRq7lLjw_k&list=PLB77CB2BAFA0F5254&index=1&feature=plpp_video
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TED is a nonprofit organization whose slogan is, “Ideas worth spreading.” TEDx, an offshoot of TED, brings people together in local, self-organized events to share the TED experience and spark discussion.
The event featured Morgan Wienberg, founder of Little Footprints, Big Steps and primary caretaker for over 75 children in Haiti. For Wienberg – who, at age nineteen, decided to forgo university to care for over 75 victimized children in a Haitian orphanage – redefining reality means changing your perspective and stepping outside the box.
“[Redefining reality] means taking into account other peoples’ perspectives. Make sure your eyes are not the only ones that you’re looking through,” she said.
“Don’t let the expectations of society or your own expectations of yourself and your comfort zone stop you,” she continued. “If it’s never been done, who cares? You can do it.”
-Annie Shiel
Morgan shared the following information at the Tedx presentation:
When you hear the word ''orphanage'', what comes to mind? A refuge for children whose parents have suffered tragic deaths?
...If you had the chance to look deeper - to look through the eyes of an orphan - your perception of this word may change.
This year, I chose to live alongside the 75 desperate children of a Haitian orphanage. I experienced the unseen struggles these children - my children - went through each day. My understanding of the word ''orphanage'' - and of the word ''orphan'' - has completely changed. I've never seen anything more frightening than Haiti's orphanage system.
Open your eyes and take another look at the children who live in this orphanage. Are they in a home... or are they trapped and tortured by a corrupt system of institutions? The for-profit orphanage, for instance, is a dangerous spider that thrives in impoverished nations. The spider I lived with was exploiting vulnerable children to lure in international aid.
A complex web leads children - like those I lived with - into neglecful orphanages or cycles of slavery. This web is made up of extreme poverty, difficulty accessing education, lack of family planning, inefficient social services, hunger, and an overwhelming need for medical care - all intertwined. These struggles are magnified in the lives of a country's most vulnerable families.
Haitian families, for example, are often very large. Many have only one parent, who is unemployed. These parents become desperate for a way to feed, clothe and educate their children. They feel trapped in the web of poverty. So when a spider, such as a corrupt orphanage or a child trafficker, walks by and offers to take children to a place with more opportunity, parents are eager to believe this is true. They give away their child. Yet child abandonment such as this allows children to be placed directly in the mouth of the spider. Thousands of children in Haiti are being beaten, burned, sold, used as slaves, kicked onto the streets and completely exploited...and their parents have no idea.
- Morgan Wienberg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NRq7lLjw_k&list=PLB77CB2BAFA0F5254&index=1&feature=plpp_video
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