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American Morning
Interview of Sarah Ferguson
Aired January 11, 2002 - 08:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Like so many others, Sarah Ferguson is also recovering from the attacks of September the 11th. The offices of her New York-based charity, Chances for Children, were lost in the World Trade Center. She is now planning a trip to Afghanistan on behalf of her other children's foundation, and she also happens to have a new book out. It is called "Energy Breakthrough: Jump-start Your Weight Loss and Feel Great."
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, and Weight Watchers Spokeswoman joins me now from CNN Center in Atlanta. Happy New Year, good to see you again.
SARAH FERGUSON, DUCHESS OF YORK: Happy New Year to you, too, Paula. Thank you. It is nice to see you.
ZAHN: Thank you. So, Sarah, let's start off by talking a little bit about your reflections of September 11th. Exactly what happened to your charity? We obviously know the towers collapsed, but what was housed there?
FERGUSON: Well, our office was on the 101st floor with Cantor- Fitzgerald, and Howard Lutnick has been a fabulous friend to me for many years now, and he sort of like adopted us in his organization as part of Cantor, and Chances for Children has been housed there for five years, and, of course, we lost many friends on September the 11th.
But the most extraordinary thing was, afterwards, a policeman and a fireman found Little Red, which is the symbol of the charity and carried her out in his helmet, and for us that showed that we have to continue with the foundation, and show that, you know, you must keep going in this -- turn a negative into a positive.
ZAHN: So you obviously are keeping up that commitment to that charity as well as another one that you've been involved with for years called Children in Crisis. Now, just to give our viewers a context here, this was a charity that actually funded underground schools in Afghanistan. Give us an update on how this war on terror has changed the mission there.
FERGUSON: Right, okay, well six years ago I saw some BBC footage which showed children jumping off the top of an orphanage because they couldn't cope. They just wanted to die rather than live there. The situation was terrible. So Children in Crisis went in, then the Talibans arrived, so we had to go underground because they, of course, believed that women and girls should not be educated, and there should be no form of help whatsoever for young girls, so we started 98 homebased schools, I mean, we've been working there for the last five years, and our office opened again two days ago, which is very exciting because we have the Karte Se day-center where girls and boys are being educated and fed.
And if you consider that 85,000 children per year die from diarrhea, and one doctor per 50,000, there is a massive situation, and in fact, a lot of the money now raised in the United States with Chances for Children is also going to the children of Kabul to give them a chance.
ZAHN: And I understand you very much would like to make a trip over there personally. Will that be allowed?
FERGUSON: Well, I don't know, Paula. I've put it to the foreign office, and I hope to go there because I think the fact that I've been there for six years, you know -- well, the organization, Children in Crisis, has been there for six years, it's not as if I'm just going in on the media bandwagon.
I'm certainly going in with looking at the office, and what we've done, and seeing how we can help, and I think the most important thing, right now, is it's all very well, us moving into Afghanistan and, you know, moving the Taliban on, but let's not forget that the women and the girls need to be supported now, because we can't just go on to the next disaster. We must continue to give them a life, because educate -- if we don't educate these children now, then Afghanistan's past is going to take -- go back again. We must continue to work for the present to give Afghanistan a chance now.
ZAHN: Well, you certainly have been one busy woman continuing to do your charity work as well as turning out those books, one right after the other. Your new one out, that we mentioned at the top of the interview, is "Energy Breakthrough." Can you explain to all of us in America what it is that we should be doing to have more energy? I think America is very tired right now.
FERGUSON: Yes, and I think it's very easy to sit back and say, well, after September 11th, I'm just going to eat, or I'm just going to do this, and I'm not going to do New Year's resolutions.
Well, the bottom line is, is today is just as important as tomorrow or yesterday, and what I say in "Energy Breakthrough" is, undoubtedly, is I feel great now, and I've lost the weight, and I've got more energy than ever. So I'm saying, go to Weight Watchers and do something about your weight. You know, don't sit back. You've got to join today because if you don't, you know, who knows what's going to happen tomorrow? You know, I mean, I think we owe it to ourselves to really make a difference to today with compassion for ourselves, and I think the way to do it is to take control.
ZAHN: And if anybody has read any of your previous books they'll understand how difficult it was for you to get on the right track, and you feel you're not going to fall off that wagon, are you?
FERGUSON: Oh, Paula.
ZAHN: You've gone too far, haven't you?
FERGUSON: I think I have got such support from Weight Watchers, there's no way I can get off it. I'm feeling very good, and I've -- I feel this year, 2002, is really make -- it's going to be a good year. I'm very excited by it, and I'm looking forward to it.
ZAHN: Well, we hope you do have a good year, and thank you very much for spending some time with us this morning.
FERGUSON: Thank you, Paula.
ZAHN: Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.
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