By Rowen Jin
When I asked Pam, a member of our sponsoring St Francis missionary group for the WASH project in Plaisance, how she knows what she does is making a difference in Plaisance. She answered, “We watch for the small changes and we are grateful for them.” Pam has been involved with WASH issues in Plaisance over 15 years. As World Water Relief finishes the project here, her words resonate with me.
Plaisance is a small town located in Northern Haiti and has had a persistent water problem. People often walk 30 to 75 minutes every day to retrieve water from nearby pumps or pay the relatively exorbitant price of 20 Haitian goudes per bucket of unfiltered water. With our WASH project, we are providing safe drinking water to over 1000 children in three separate schools and to over 100 families in the community on a daily basis. Many of these children previously had not had clean water or, often, any water at all. The bathrooms, before our arrival, were not cleaned, constantly exposing the children to disease-causing agents. With the new handwashing stations, soap, and toilet seats, the children will have vastly improved access to sanitation. The hygiene education component further insures that students will bring these lessons home, expanding our impact beyond the school.
With this project, we began keeping record of the water situation, gastrointestinal health status, school attendance and performance at the schools and in the community. We hope to monitor and track changes in this community in the upcoming years. This will hopefully bring satisfaction and comfort to sponsors, from St Francis and elsewhere, that have supported and continue to support WWR efforts for the past years.
This is another project that World Water Relief will monitor and maintain for years to come. It’s a small start to bringing safe drinking water to areas that are currently in desperate need. However, collectively, these small changes we are watching and hoping for can amount to significant changes in these communities we continue to work and live in.
This little boy grinned wide, as he washed his hands at one of our newly constructed handwashing stations, happy to have water. The water from this handwashing station, then, flushes the urinals, maintaining the smell and cleanliness of the area.
Hello friends of Haiti,
I’d like to update you on the WASH project, a collaborative effort between some generous anonymous donors, St. Francis Core Ministry, and World Water Relief (WWR). This project’s purpose was to provide drinking fountains with clean filtered water, hand washing stations, improved bathroom facilities, and health sanitation education to the schools of St. Vincent de Paul (school for the indigent children of Plaisance) and the adjacent School of the Holy Cross (the boys school administered by the Brothers). Clean water has been proven to be the number 1 factor in improving health in any community. The site was chosen because of the existence of the well and the need to begin health education with the next generation. The school children will, hopefully, share the knowledge they receive at school with their families.
I spoke to Ben Seidl, program manager for WWR, last evening and we are both very pleased with the completion of structural improvements at the schools. The water filtration system is operational; bathroom stalls have been cleaned and toilet seats installed; the janitor has been instructed on weekly cleaning and will be compensated; pipelines with potable water were installed to the school kitchen, as well as the drinking and hand washing stations; residual filtered potable water will be provided to community families at a minimal fee at the end of the school day; and these monies will pay for the gasoline used to run the generator (which pumps the well water through the filtering system). Additionally, through another project at WWR, Ben is working to get us free soap for the schools for the next 5+ years. (There is an individual who has partnered with the Hilton Hotels and receives partially used soap, reprocesses it, and is supplying it to schools in 3rd world communities) The cost of this WASH project at the schools includes maintenance for the filtering unit for the next 10 years and educational materials for the schools.
We have been diligent in making this effort self-sustaining. It also has culminated in the improved salary for the janitor and the hiring of a water guardian. This man will help in the distribution of the clean residual water at the end of the school day. He will instruct people to disinfect their containers with bleach and collect the fee for the water. These monies pay the additional salary needs, bleach, gasoline for the generator, etc. This ancillary project came about because of Rowen Jin, an intern with WWR who has been, quite literally, God-sent.
Acquisition of water in the community of Plaisance is extremely difficult. People are afraid to use water from the river because of the cholera epidemic. The water from the mountain spring has been diverted to another community… think of opposing factions for water rights coupled with corrupt individuals with guns. These issues make the wells we had dug years ago of primary importance. I ask for your prayers for an honest mayoral election this May, someone the Plaisance community leaders can work with to solve the water issues.
In conclusion, in a meeting of the water committee, established at St. Michael’s Parish to help oversee community water resources and clean water efforts, Sister Josef asked if her school children did not deserve to also have a WASH project at their school. As always, there is a never a lack of need and suggestion for the next humanitarian project. I join in Sister’s prayer for clean water and public health facilities at this school and the school of St. Monfort.
In gratitude,
Pam