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Morgan Wienberg is the Co-Founder, Coordinator, and Head of Haiti Operations for Little Footprints Big Steps International Development Organization. She was kind enough to take the time for an extensive interview with me. Please find part 6 here, and 1 here, 2 here, 3 here, and 4 here, and 5 here.
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9. Jacobsen: What does this exposure mean to you?
Wienberg: I am excited to have their stories heard by others because many children have been taught that they need to be silent to protect themselves. I have been trying to teach them their power to influence others and to help others, especially with them in a better situation now. It is an example of the negative things happening to them that hurt them can be used to tell the stories, raise awareness, and help other people.
These children and families telling the stories have the opportunity for exposure and influence others. It makes me incredibly proud and excited about them. Also, I am hoping this will continue the shift. There is a shift in Haiti on the institutionalization at the moment. It is moving away from orphanages and back to family-based care, e.g., foster homes. I want the rest of the global community to be aware and support of it.
There is a lot of work to be done on raising awareness that the children face exploitation and abuse in orphanages, which is supported by foreigners. I hope this will accomplish raising awareness.
10. Jacobsen: What about well-meaning, but misguided, foreigners giving aid, volunteer time, support, and exposure in the media to these corrupt organizations?
Wienberg: That allows them to thrive. It is common – so incredibly common. This orphanage was identified by the local authorities as ‘Code Red’ and needing to be shut down. Children died inside. Children were being trafficked. The owner offered five kids to me for $800 each. There are children whose parents refuse to give them up. The orphanages took them, kidnapped them.
There were at least 6 different foreign Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) supporting the orphanage with money, donations, and time. It was perpetuating the problem. This woman was able to run her ‘business’, the orphanage, for over 20 years. I advocated to shut it down. Hundreds of thousands of people, foreigners, visited the orphanage before me.
They cried over kids’ conditions, but did not do anything to change or question it. It is like you said before. They are “well-intentioned.” It is a vicious cycle. If the kids are more sick, then the more urgently foreigners will want to help them. This has the orphanage owner neglecting the kids, keeping them as sick as possible, keeping them barefoot and with as little clothing as possible, and so on.
That will get more support. If you are at an orphanage with well-fed, well-dressed kids, and not emotionally damaged and lacking attachment, if you walk into an orphanage and the kids seem healthy and are not crying, you will not feel as pushed, urgently, to give support or aid to the orphanage. However, that orphanage is taking better care of the children.
It is counterintuitive. Those orphanages that treat children worse will get more aid. That makes orphanages good business to have there. Also, it is undermining the efforts of local authorities, which is another issue. Foreign aid coming into Haiti does not approach the government or the local authorities because there is a level of mistrust and the perception of the Haitian government as corrupt.
I have dealt with corruption. I have developed a strong relationship with local government institutions and have worked together with the police. There is corruption, but it is not all of them. The social services have social workers who have not been paid for 3 months or do not have a contract. They go to work, even on Saturdays.
You would not find that in North America. So, the government workers are genuinely committed. They are committed to the children. If the local government is looking to shut down the orphanage and international NGOs come in without approaching the authorities and support the orphanage, then they are undermining the efforts of the local authorities.
There is a huge need for increased communication between NGOs coming into the country and the local authorities, which requires a level of open-mindedness and trust for international entities to work with the local authorities. The only way to address the issues is on a long-term scale. If it is all NGOs coming in here, and if we do not work to increase the capacity of the local authorities, then we’re working on a short-term solution.
We need to work on a long-term solution.
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Original publication on www.in-sightjournal.com.
All images courtesy of https://www.littlefootprintsbigsteps.com/.