We flew into Tegucigalpa, the capital city, and proceeded to Danli for the first nite. The next morning we visited the filter factory in Danli and then spent 3 hours on dirt roads up and down mountains to get to Trojes, a border/frontier town in the El Paraiso region. The trip lasted longer than usual because the rental van broke down and we had to wait for Pure Water to send 2 trucks from Trojes to take us the rest of the way.

We spent that afternoon visiting 2 schools. School was out that week, but at one school all the residents of the village had gathered to receive storage buckets for their clean water. At the second school, deworming medicine was given to all residents of another village who had received their water filters about 2 months prior. We had to dodge cattle and their byproducts and cross streams with thin wooden planks laid across them to get to the schools.

The next day we split into 2 crews. One crew worked on building latrines and the second crew installed water filters. The work assignments were switched on the second day. The villages were located quite high in the hills around Trojes and the paths to get from 1 house to the next were quite steep. The “roads,” where they existed, were in very bad shape and the 4 wheel drive trucks struggled at times to get us to the villages.

We visited villages where water filters had been installed in prior years and talked to the residents about the benefits they had received from the filters. Our trip also included some limited sightseeing and a tour of a cigar factory.

We had lunch with 4 members of the Danli Rotary Club, the president, president-elect, treasurer and foundation chair. It was very pleasant, but they have not received any funds from R.I yet and were not prepared to discuss how and when the Trinity Rotary/Danli matching grant project would begin or what role PWW would have in this grant..

The Hondurans are very friendly and appreciative of the effort to help them. The kids are adorable and love to see pictures of themselves. The trip was very gratifying and we encourage anyone who is interested to consider going on this trip in the future.

More than 235,000 people have left Port-au-Prince using the free transportation provided by the Government. The largest influx, some 62,000 people, is in Artibonite department.

As many as 1 million people — one person in nine across the entire country — need to find new shelter, the United Nations estimates, and there are too few tents, let alone safe buildings, to put them in.

Ready-to-eat meals are needed for the short term to cover food needs.

There are now more than 500 relief organisations working to help those affected by the earthquake and the number is rising.

Water continues to be distributed daily at 115 sites in Port-au-Prince reaching an estimated 235,000 people, according to the WASH cluster. An assessment of 15 makeshift sites found that 14 sites had water and only one did not. The cluster plans to increase water distribution to reach 500,000 people daily with water,sanitation and hygiene facilities and services.

• Partnership with Pure Water Haiti under development to serve 70,000 people in Cite Soleil with water tankering, hygiene kit distribution and hygiene promotion
• The number of people living in temporary shelter sites in Port-au-Prince could be as high as 800,000, according to the Shelter Cluster.
• Water continues to be distributed daily at 115 sites in Port-au-Prince reaching an estimated 235,000 people.
• The number of injured people that need surgical interventions is diminishing, according to WHO/PAHO.
• Traffic congestion is major issue in Port-au-Prince, especially in the area of the airport.

Pure Water for the World, in partnership with local organizations, brings hygiene education and clean water to schools, clinics and orphanages, particularly in areas with little infrastructure and access to clean water. Its simple bio-sand filters, which do not require electricity and have no moving parts, can remove worms, parasites and nearly all bacteria and
toxins. A recent Partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Cité Soleil, a shanty town in Port-au-Prince, provided filters to 250 schools.

Pure Water for the World teamed up with FilterPure a year ago to distribute its ceramic water filter in Haiti. Like the bio-sand filter, the ceramic filter is simple, does not require electricity and has been shown to be highly effective against contaminates and bacteria. The ceramic filter is smaller and more portable, making it particularly valuable in the current crisis.

The FilterPure filter weighs about 8 pounds and is the size of a 5 gallon utility bucket. Contaminated water is poured into the ceramic insert, which purifies the water for drinking as it seeps through the insert into the plastic container. The flow rate ranges from 1 to 3 liters per hour.

Pure Water for the World’s bio-sand filter factory suffered some damage from the earthquake, but repairs are underway so that bio-sand filter production can be resumed and capacity added to manufacture the ceramic FilterPure filters.

Pure Water for the World and FilterPure know that a long period of recovery and rebuilding will follow the current crisis and are committed to a long-term presence in Haiti. Both the bio-sand and ceramic filters will be critical for households and institutions in the period before any adequate public water system can be built to serve the people in areas affected by the earthquake.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill that would allow taxpayers to claim a charitable deduction on their 2009 tax returns for donations made to the Haiti earthquake relief effort.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill that would allow taxpayers to claim a charitable deduction on their 2009 tax returns for donations made to the Haiti earthquake relief effort.

The change is similar to one Congress enacted in early 2005 for donations to the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami that occurred in the last week of 2004. The Senate introduced a related bill Wednesday for Haiti contributions.

“We all witnessed the horrendous event that took place in our hemisphere last week and have united in a bipartisan way to do what we can to ease the pain of those who are suffering in Haiti,” Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement.

The bill would allow anyone who donates to the Haiti relief effort to deduct the contribution on their 2009 return as opposed to waiting until next year to deduct on their 2010 return. It includes a provision to allow anyone who sent a donation via text message to use their phone bill as proof.

In Haiti the capital and business center, the devastation in Port-au-Prince has crippled commerce in the whole country. Just think of living with no banks, no banking records, no electronic banking systems, no money in circulation, no shops through which money can flow, no access to local currency, dollars not accepted on the streets, no way for salaries to be paid, no way for companies to access their finances.  Imagine having no money for essential goods and service for yourself and your family.  In  a country where the majority of the people live on less than $2.00 a day, most people had no reserves and of course, now have no money available to them.

Doing some research, we at Pure Water for the World found that some financial institutions are scheduled to reopen tomorrow (Thursday, January 21st).  See the following from the Miami Herald

The Miami Herald Wednesday, 01.20.10

Flow of cash in Haiti getting up to speed

BY MARTHA BRANNIGAN AND FRANCES ROBLES

A rupture in the flow of cash to Haiti should begin to ease as the quake-ravaged country plans to reopen its banks Thursday after a nine-day shutdown. Haiti scrambled Tuesday to get its fragile banking system up and running, a pivotal step in restoring life to the earthquake-battered nation.

Haiti’s central bank told its commercial banks, which have remained closed since the Jan. 12 earthquake, to reopen Thursday. “People in diaspora should not have any problems sending money to family,” said Charles Castel, head of the central bank.

Meanwhile, money transfer services, which play a critical role in sending cash to Haitians from family members abroad, began resuming operations amid damaged facilities, limited communications, and a shortage of cash.

To help, some firms, such as Western Union and Unitransfer, are temporarily offering fee-free money transfers. As Haiti looks to stabilize, cash and a functioning banking and payments system will become increasingly crucial, banking experts say.

A World Bank official told The Miami Herald that experts inside and outside of the bank planned to hold a conference call Wednesday to evaluate the status of Haiti’s financial system and to discuss ways to inject life into the remittances and payments system.

Amiceau Almira, who used to work at Western Union, sat outside a damaged center in Petionville Tuesday, his pockets empty, telling folks that the shop was still closed. He said the agency is open in Saint-Marc, Gonaive and Cap Haitien, and expected to open more locations in the capital on Thursday or Friday.

“Currently, we’re working with our agents and local offices in Haiti to help restore service. We are operating on a partial basis,” said Daniel Diaz, a Western Union spokesman. “Where we have open locations, they are operating. The only variable factor is the availability of currency.”

Haitians rely heavily on remittances from friends and family members overseas. The Inter-American Development Bank estimates remittances to Haiti reached more than $1.87 billion in 2008. That amounted to 16.2 percent of the gross domestic product. About 70 percent of the money came from the United States, which has large groups of Haitians in Miami, New York and Boston.

“It’s going to be critical to open up the spigot,” said John Rodriguez, president of the Florida International Bankers Association.

Hollywood-based Unitransfer, a major money transfer firm in Haiti, said it resumed sending money from the United States to people in Haiti Tuesday, and isn’t charging fees.

“We are waiving all transfer fees. We know the situation is difficult on this side as well, and we want to do whatever is possible to help people to send money that is crucially needed in Haiti,” said Jean-Marc Piquion, a vice president at Unitransfer, a unit of Unibank, Haiti’s largest commercial bank.

Piquion said locations in the provinces should be operating normally, while outlets in Port-au-Prince are becoming operative “gradually.”

At a Unitransfer store in Miami’s Little Haiti Tuesday, Rose Baker sent $100 to a friend’s brother suffering from two broken legs. She said it is a relief to be able to start providing direct financial help to loved ones.

“I have to come back later to send some more money to my family. Right now, they’re stranded in Port-au-Prince with nothing to eat or drink,” Baker said.

Joubert Pascal was on his way to send $200 to his sons who are sleeping outside in a park after their home suffered extensive damage. “They need the money to buy food or whatever. They have nothing in their pockets,” he said.

In Haiti, the rupture in the cash pipeline is hitting hard.

“Yesterday I bought a case of juice for 80 [Haitian gourds, the currency]. Before, it was 65,” said Estaneala Bonheur, who was sitting in a lonely Port-au-Prince soda stand with no customers. “But nobody has money in their hands, so nobody is buying. Even cigarettes are too expensive.”

Marie Carmel Plasir, who has a spot at the tent city right in front of the crumbled National Palace in Port-au-Prince, said she has lots of relatives in Miami willing to send her money. She just hasn’t had any way to get to it.

“My family in Miami takes care of me, and they want to continue taking care of me,” Plasir said. “They are asking me how to send money but there’s no possibility. Nothing is open. I have to depend on other families to share their food with us.”

To get cash into Haitians’ hands, City National Bank, an African-American-owned bank in Newark, N.J., which isn’t related to City National Bank of Florida, is working with Fonkoze, a financial services firm that serves Haiti’s poor, to provide free money transfer services to Haitians. The two firms have an ongoing project aimed at reducing the cost of delivering cash to Haitians from family and friends outside the country.

Louis Prezeau, president of City National Bank and a director of Fonkoze, said the reopening of Haiti’s banks this week should enable City National and Fonkoze to go ahead with the fee-free money transfers, once cash is available. “Fonkoze has very grass roots connections in Haiti. The idea is to make it simpler and easier and cheaper for Haitians to send funds to their families.”

Rodriguez, the president of FIBA, said the earthquake’s devastating blow comes just as Haiti was beginning to make progress in exporting and trade finance. “Factoring arrangements were being established so exports could be financed,” he said. “We’re hoping it’s a temporary interruption and we hope to get back on track.”

Miami Herald staff writers Jacqueline Charles in Port-au-Prince and Nadege Charles in Miami contributed to this report.

To the hundreds of our supporters who have so generously donated to our efforts, thank you.

Since the January, 12th  earthquake, Pure Water for the World has received many offers of assistance in its effort to help provide clean drinking water. A group of radio stations is raising funds to rebuild the water program in schools in Cite Soleil.  Because of the work of PWW, a medical team from Burlington, Vermont has traveled to Haiti with a medical organization and is representing the concerns and interest of Pure Water for the World.  Many professionals are offering their services to help in whatever way they can.  We are very grateful for the outpouring of support.

Here is a story that touched our hearts.

From the Tooth Fairy to Haiti: A Young Vermonter’s Act of Love

On Thursday afternoon, the Pure Water for the World staff in Rutland received a visit from a young girl.

Five year old Ebe Fernandez had learned of PWW’s work in Haiti and the urgent need for clean water following Tuesday’s earthquake. She made a decision that belies her young age when she asked her parents, Phil and Erin Fernandez of Rutland, if she could donate her tooth fairy money and other savings to PWW.  She arrived at the PWW office with $65.33 in a small plastic bag and proudly presented her gift to PWW’s Executive Director, Carolyn Meub. Moved to tears by the generosity of this young donor, Meub expressed her gratitude for the overwhelming generosity of the friends of PWW during this unprecedented effort to continue bringing clean water to Haiti.

Update on PWW family in Haiti

PWW staff members remain in Haiti following Tuesday’s disaster and have been tirelessly working under desperate conditions to set up water filters in Port-au-Prince.  David Putt, Sebestien and Marie-Paule DeMarre, Roman Cipus and staff have been able to access the salvageable filters from the factory. On Thursday they distributed 40 ceramic and 3 sand filters to a medical clinic near the PWW staff house. They report that food and water continue to be in critical shortage, aid groups are having difficulty getting into the city, and most people are living on the streets. As of now, we have not heard from three of our staff.  We hope it is only a communication issue and nothing more. The remaining staff members are very tired, but are well.  They are committed to continuing PWW’s work, especially at this critical time when basic services remain largely unavailable. They are helping the wounded and bringing comfort to those who have lost so much.

Thank you to all who have supported us. We will continue to keep you updated on our efforts to assist the people of Haiti.