December chlorinator installations

International Action made four very important chlorinator installations in December. Two of the installations were  at Port-au-Prince schools: the Ecole Mixte Ittanie and the Collège mixte Excelsior. Both schools enroll over 200 students. The Ecole mixte Ittanie takes in the most impoverished children in the area. Both schools were given a water tank, an LF 1000 chlorinator, chlorine residual testing kits, and chlorine tablets.

 The Saint Marc Parish received a 2000-gallon water tank and a chlorinator. Fifty priests and about forty temporary missionaries live in the parish. The directors of the parish will oversee the use of external water spigots to which the surrounding neighborhoods will have access.

Finally, International Action has continued its expansion into the Sud-Est department of Haiti. In collaboration with Architecture for Humanity we recently installed a chlorinator and 2000-gallon water tank at the Ecole Communautaire la Dignité, in Jacmel.

Additionally, we restocked functioning chlorinators with chlorine tablets during December, so that communities could ring in the New Year safe, protected from cholera.

When we’re not installing chlorinators…

In November 2011, we installed two new chlorinators and were able to accomplish many other important goals. This raises the question: What does International Action do when besides installing chlorinators?

 

Answer: A whole lot.

 

We regularly visit chlorinator sites to check up on and maintain the structures. While we we’re there, we meet up with community leaders in order to strengthen our ties with the community, and to help strengthen bonds within the community itself.  We want to make sure the devices we’re installing are effective and efficient in reaching the largest number of people. We also carry out residual chlorine tests that can help us monitor the stock of chlorine and the quality of the water in the tanks with chlorinators. Similarly, we restock the chlorinators with chlorine tablets as well as give out granular chlorine to those communities that do not have chlorinators. For instance, in November alone we distributed forty-four buckets of granular chlorine to fourteen sites in Port-Au-Prince and to two sites outside of the city. We also provide granular chlorine to other organizations that can distribute them amongst the areas in which they work. Thanks to BRAC we set up two chlorinators in November. BRAC (Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee) is an international aid organization that expanded into Haiti in 2010 after the earthquake. We paired up with the health branch of BRAC in order to combat cholera. Their program helped design a clean water structure in a school that channeled rainwater. We then put a 2,000-gallon water tank on the site located in Port-Au-Prince.

 

Recently, we have been preparing for our expansion into Jacmel. In order to find out what chlorinator sites would be most effective, we have been carrying out studies surveying the area and speaking with community members. Our first chlorinator was installed in December.

Strength in Numbers: Cooperation and Water Saved the Life of Paulin Marius

“Water is essential to our survival. Imagine being without it or having to walk hours to have access to the most vital commodity that we need to go about our daily activities.”

                                                -Madame Nicole Defay, Director of Williamson Village in Haiti

The story of Paulin Marius: how cooperation gave him clean water, which saved his father’s life

Paulin is 14 years old. He lives with his 7 brothers and sisters and his father, who is slowly going blind. His mother passed away during childbirth, and his physical development was stunted following a childhood fever.

This October, Paulin’s father fell ill with vomiting and diarrhea. Paulin walked his dad up a mountain in order to get him to the hospital for cholera treatment.

Paulin with a staff member from Hope for Haiti

One of our partners, Hope for Haiti, gave Paulin a bucket of chlorine to protect his family from future cholera outbreaks.

Clean water has made a healthy life possible for Paulin, his father, his siblings, and many children like Paulin. 

The Bigger Picture:

50% of Haitians do not have access to the most vital of resources: clean water. Waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and symptoms such as chronic diarrhea are responsible for 16% of deaths for children under the age of 5. Since October 2010, over 418,000 Haitians have been diagnosed with cholera. With so many people lacking access to clean, safe water and the number of people afflicted by cholera growing steadily each month, water and sanitation services must be improved for more people at a faster rate. Cooperation between local governments, community-based organizations, and non-governmental organizations is the only way to protect more people, faster.

The Solution:

We at International Action recognized this, and in July of this year created a Cholera Prevention Consortium. The goal of the consortium is to bring safe water to all corners of Haiti. 22 NGOs and over 20 communities have asked to join our efforts. In September alone, we donated 122  buckets (50 pounds each) of chlorine to 22 groups that work throughout Haiti.

A Glimpse of Our Partners

One of the first groups we donated to was Mercy & Sharing. Mercy & Sharing operates 3 residential care facilities for a total of 116 children in Williamson, located 37 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince. Williamson is very impoverished: the only businesses bringing in any revenue are the hotels on the beach. 51 percent of the orphans at Mercy & Sharing are disabled. They are in even greater need of clean, safe water than most because many have weakened immune systems.  Nearby is a Mercy & Sharing-run school that serves 300 students.

On July 18, 2011, Mercy & Sharing picked up 20 buckets of chlorine from International Action. They needed the chlorine because many of the children they work with were getting sick from contaminated water. Since Mercy and Sharing picked up the chlorine from us in July, they have helped provide over 18,000 people a month with clean, safe water.

“Thanks to the donation of International Action who gratefully donated the chlorine, we are now able to deliver clean water to the Williamson population.

Every day people from the community come as early as 5am to fill their bucket and jugs. Some come with their donkey making sure they carry the most water they can get while satisfying their need until the next morning.

We are lucky to have found such good-hearted people who wholesomely care about the well-being of their fellow brother and sisters.”

                                   -Madame Nicole Defay, Director of Williamson Village in Haiti

Moving Forward 

There are many towns like Williamson; many more groups like Mercy and Sharing wanting help out; and thousands of people who have stories like Paulin.

We would not have been able to help Paulin and his father without the cooperation of our consortium partners. Cooperation and clean water save lives, which is why we will continue to expand the consortium. Please forward this email to any friends and family that would like the opportunity to help out in Haiti.

We have the full support of our staff, our board members, the Haitians we work with, and even President Martelly, who made a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York at the end of September in which he championed International Action for our commitment to provide 2.5 million Haitians with clean water. But most importantly, your support makes all this work possible. Please join us in helping more children like Paulin live a healthy and happy life by donating $30 or $50 a month.

Warmest regards and deepest thanks,

– The International Action Team

After a year, threefold spikes in cholera infections in Haiti

A year after the cholera outbreak, the infection has sickened close to half a million Haitians, and experts fear that the number of dead may reach 10,000 by the end of the year. It is, says Paul Farmer of Partners in Health, “far and away the biggest epidemic in the world right now.”

According to a new article by Eve Conant at The Daily Beast, there are only 40 organizations working to fight cholera in Haiti today, down from 128 in January. With the possibility of large-scale vaccinations still frustratingly remote, it is more important than ever that we maintain our efforts to improve Haiti’s water and sanitation infrastructure.

– The International Action Team

Looking for Partners to Distribute De-Worming Pills

Does your organization work with children in Haiti? If so, help us fight malnutrition and dysentery, and boost school attendance, by distributing albendazole de-worming pills.

Intestinal worms are rampant in Haiti, thanks to the lack of clean water and sanitation resources. Children suffer the most from these parasites, which can steal up to 20% of a child’s daily nutritional intake, leaving them at great risk of malnutrition and anemia. With these come further problems: stunted growth; impaired physical and mental development; time away from school. These worms are setting back an entire generation of Haitians.

We have a supply of albendazole de-worming pills ready for distribution from our warehouse in Port-au-Prince. If your group works with a school or clinic in Haiti, why not partner with us to combat this scourge? Send us an email at info@haitiwater.org, or contact Zach Brehmer (zbrehmer@haitiwater.org) or Wesley Laine (wesley@haitiwater.org). Let us know who you are, where you work, and how many children you can reach.

Together, we can help create a better future for Haiti’s children.

– The International Action Team

Solar Light Installed in Trou-Sable

By providing potable water to disadvantaged neighborhoods in Haiti, we expected that the residents’ lives would improve. They did, however an unlikely and unfortunate consequence presented itself; if people needed to collect water at night, how would they do so safely? There have long been reports of armed robbery and sexual assault (as people in Haiti call “kadejak”) at communal water stations.

Our solution was to install lights that would illuminate the area around the water tanks, so as to deter would-be criminals from committing crime and negatively impacting others’ lives. These lights don’t even require electricity, as they are solar-powered, and automatically come on at night.

The last solar light we installed serves the community of Trou-Sable, a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Until recently, nearly everyone would return home before dark and not leave until the morning. Thanks to this light, the residents of this community are now working at night, going to school at night, and selling goods at night. Safety in the area has increased by around 60%.

Now the community is experiencing a revitalization in productivity, especially among young people. They have more options. The residents living in the vicinity of this light have expressed their gratitude to us for helping to make their neighborhood safer.

–The International Action Team

Missions of Love Distributing De-Worming Pills

The percentage of Haitian people currently infected with worms is staggering; nearly 80% of Haiti’s 9.7 million people have some form of intestinal worms. These parasites are especially threatening to children who are malnourished already; intestinal worms can consume up to 20% of a child’s daily intake. Being infected can lead to dysentery, stunted growth, learning disabilities, and habitual fatigue. This unfortunate circumstance presents Haiti with dire consequences; 80% of Haiti’s population is under the age of 14. How is the country supposed to develop when its young adults are not prepared to lead Haiti and create a better future for themselves?

Children and Missions of Love staff at the Good Shepard Orphanage

No doubt, treatment for intestinal worms decreases school absenteeism by 25% and increases adult income by 20%. This could be done at a rate of just 50 cents US for each child per year. Administering the medicine to children is easy; coordinating a program to administer the medicine to every Haitian child is a different story. To solve this issue, we have reached out to NGOs, local community groups, and churches, all of whom to which we donate albendazole pills (the de-worming medication) and train how to administer the drug. Over 22 such groups have helped us in our effort to cure children in Haiti of intestinal worms. One group, Missions of Love, has worked in the following locations:

Good Shepherd Orphanage, Port-au-Prince—18 residents at the orphanage have received albendazole pills.

Child being treated at Good Shepard Orphanage

Bush Clinic in Odige, La Platte—87 patients were seen by Missions of Love’s Haitian staff; an RN, a pharmacist, and a physician. Everyone that was diagnosed with intestinal worms was administered albenazole.

Bel Air—Missions of Love began working within Bel Air 16 months ago. 74 children have been treated since.

Thanks to the efforts of Missions of Love and other groups in Haiti fighting to treat children with intestinal worms, the future leaders of Haiti can have a chance to build a more productive existence and a more thriving country.

—The International Action Team

Cholera Death Toll Rises, So Does Number of People Protected from Waterborne Illness

Since October 2010, the death toll from cholera has reached 6,435. The Haitian Health Ministry places the number of people infected just under 500,000.

The mode of transport of cholera from person to person is unclean water; other illnesses profit from untreated water, such as chronic diarrhea, hepatitis, and typhoid fever.

What is so heartbreaking is that not only are these diseases the leading cause of infant mortality and childhood illness, but that these illnesses are preventable. Unfortunately, most Haitians are not able to protect themselves, seeing as how clean water is such a luxury in Haiti. This is why we are invested in providing potable water to as many people as we can, because it saves lives and improves well-being.

Our chlorination systems are trusted; 90 percent of households in neighborhoods that we serve get their water from our chlorinated water tanks, and 91 percent of our beneficiaries believe that water treated by our chlorinators is safe to drink.

Chlorinated Water Tank at a School

Last month, we installed chlorinators in 16 schools and 5 new communities.

The schools are located in: Pétion-Ville, Delmas, Croix-des-Bouquets, Petit-Goâve, Thomazeu, and Aquin.

The communities that now have access to potable water are Fontaine I, Fontaine II, Fontaine III, Fontaine IV, and Fontaine V.

Thanks to our chlorinators, an additional 55,000 people are now protected from waterborne illnesses.

3500 New Books, 3500 Reasons for Hope

Believe it or not, even in the second decade of the 21st century, only 52% of Haitians between 15 and 24 years of age are literate. Haiti also faces a shortage of education supplies, severely hindering young Haitians’ chances of building a better future for themselves and their country.

Mercy School children

The new school year in Haiti starts today. Thanks to the cohesive efforts of our donors, board members, staff, partners, and teachers and parents in Haiti, 960 children in the Cite Soleil slum will be provided with 3500 Creole-language books. But our efforts don’t stop here; not only do we need to provide the books, but we need someone to: 1) Teach the students how to read the books; 2) Ensure the students have an understanding of the Creole language; and 3) Integrate these books into the classroom curriculum.

The 6 books we are donating are titled: Kote Linèt Mèmè (coming together as one),  Tòti Lekòl La (respect for the environment), Jak ak Mak (respecting people), Ale (creativity and fun), Fefe ak Kikit (respect for animals as well as human beings), and Se Fèt Mako (celebrating life).

In collaboration with Educa Vision, we created a lesson plan on how to best use the Creole-language books and delivered a two-day seminar (August 15 & 16) to representatives of each of our 20 beneficiary schools. Each representative will instruct teachers on how to use the books. In a few months, Louko Noel of International Action and the staff of Educa Vision will hold another seminar to monitor the progress of the program, ensuring that all teachers are properly trained, and answer questions or concerns that may have arisen. Until such time, Dalebrun Esther, our director in Haiti, will monitor the program.

“The seminar that International Action held opened my eyes to how we can improve how we teach with these books. It also gave me some new ideas for what our teachers can do with the resources we already have.”                 –A school director from the Mercy School

International Action Brings Water Treatment to Shantytown

One of the displaced-persons camps in Port-au-Prince, called Martissant 2A, has developed into a sprawling shantytown of 35,000 people and also gained the nickname “the lawless zone,” due to how underserved its residents are. In July of 2011, DINEPA (the Haitian government’s water agency) undertook the responsibility of building five water stations around the area, with the aid of the International Organization for Migration and the International Red Cross. Our job was to install a chlorinator at each government water station; this will ensure that these 35,000 people will have clean, safe water to drink.