ROTARY CLUB OF SASKATOON

 

May 27, 2024. Meeting at the Saskatoon Club.

 

Jack Brodsky chaired the meeting. Members sang O Canada. Avis Hardy recited grace.

 

Mark Gryba handled technology. Cashier was Donna Gauthier. Don Lepp was the greeter.

 

There was one guest, our presenter, who joined us on Zoom.

 

 

Arlene Jule gave a summary of her involvement in Tanzania over the past few years. It started as a health centre and the nuns who run the project are seeking to add on. There has been a water project, and they have a pharmacy which serves a 30-mile radius. Girls are assisted in getting an education, which is not the norm in the region.

 

       

Morgan Weinberg was 18-years old when she went to Haiti to volunteer after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck in 2010. She intended to stay for one month. She ended up returning in 2011 because while there she saw abuse and neglect in the orphanage where she worked. This orphanage, and many others like it, stole the money meant to support the children and sold the goods meant to help them, using their physical plight to attract more donations in a dreadful circle.

 

In 2011 Morgan co-founded Little Footprints Big Steps: Child Protection in Haiti. Having left her home in Whitehorse she has been working in Haiti ever since. As the Executive Director she leads staff and programming initiatives, forms partnerships with the Haitian government agencies and non-profits, and advocates for children as a delegate and keynote speaker at conferences around the world.

 

Morgan has been honoured with Canada ‘s Meritorious Service Cross Medal and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Rotary International Paul Harris Fellowship Award for Humanitarian Impact, the Wilf Wilkinson Peace Award, and Haven Organization’s International Goodwill Haiti Award. She has been a keynote speaker at the United Nations Youth Assembly, the Udayan Care International conference in New Delhi, the Rose International Conference, Family Preservation Symposiums in Haiti, and numerous Rotary District Conferences in Canada and the U.S. She has attended the Canadian Association of Principals Conference and has been an invited delegate at LUMOS Organization Learning Conference in Belfast, Ireland. She is also an inspirational and motivational speaker for schools, universities, and other events.

 

 

The orphanages Morgan describes have as many as 120 children in them. The main cause of the problems is that many families are so poor that they can not support all their children. They send them to these orphanages thinking that they will be better taken care of than they could at home. They are not. Some orphanages are staffed only by teenagers and there is physical and sexual abuse, along with neglect. Approximately 80 % of the children in these orphanages have families.

 

The main goal of Morgan s organization is to reconnect the children with their families and to do this Morgan ‘s staff is organized to do the following:

The staff of the organization includes one nurse, two social workers, an accountant, a program co-ordinator, child/youth workers, business start up co-ordinators, house mothers and translators.

 

Next Meeting - June 10. Presenter is Kenn McCloud from the Saskatoon Summer Players.

-   reported by Steve Wilson