ROANE COUNTY, Tenn (WVLT) -- Eleven year old Sydney O'Leary says, "God's told me to help the orphans so I am going to."

And she is. From her house in Roane County, she helps provide food, water and medicine among other things to orphans in Ghana, Africa.

Sydney says, "We have food, we have water, clothes. We have a lot compared to them. A house, a bed. They sleep on the concrete floor."

Last May Sydney started selling t-shirts on a blog (on the Internet) hoping to make 500 dollars. But even better. She collected $8,000.

She started a website "www.feedingtheorphans.com" and the pot grew to 45-thousand dollars.
It's now a nonprofit organization that provides for kids in seven orphanages in Ghana.

Her mother Kristie O'Learly says, "She is drilling a well in a remote village, people there are sick they die from bad water."

Sydney's mission started last spring when she refused to eat.

She tells us, "My mom wanted to get some pizza, but I said wasn't hungry. I asked her if we can we buy me some bread and water. I said why should we eat like kings and queens when they have nothing."

The O'Leary family has adopted two children from Ghana: Helen who is three years old and her biological brother Samuel, age six.

They're adopting two more. Two brothers who are orphans from Africa will join the O'Leary team in the fall.

Kristie says, "We have so much to offer, no I don't anticipate it stopping."