Newsletters
Six Months Later…
It has been exactly six months since the devastating earthquake in Haiti. That story is no longer in the headlines, yet for those living in Haiti there are constant reminders of that terrible day.___________________________________________________________
Power in Partnerships: Save the Children helps in Cite Soleil
April 23, 2010
As a result of the devastation of the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Save the Children (SAVE) and Pure Water for the World (PWW) entered into an agreement to provide emergency water delivery to sites in Port-au-Prince, hygiene education training and hygiene promotion – primarily to Cite Soleil. This area of Port au Prince is considered one of the world’s poorest and has suffered extensive damage from the earthquake.
This partnership is providing families in the delivery areas with clean water for drinking, cooking and maintaining personal hygiene. It has trained 50 teachers and principals (who had previously participated in the PWW schools’ program) as neighborhood health promoters. The Health Promoters have received additional training to provide hygiene information to five thousand families in Cite Soleil. These teachers and principals are considered community leaders and live and work in Cite Soleil.
Because 90% of the reservoirs in schools where PWW previously had filter programs were damaged and unusable, the identification of usable sites was imperative. In a few weeks, more than 40 sites were selected. PWW is now delivering five liters of chlorinated water to 82,000 people per day – 60% are children. The majority of these delivery sites are in Cite Soleil with the remainder in the Fort National and Delmas areas of Port au Prince. Delivering water six days per week in the first month of the project, PWW delivered 520 tanker loads of water totaling 1,612,000 gallons of water.
“Pure Water for the World has become a lifeline for the people of Cite Soleil, especially when they needed it the most. In these areas where water is a scarce commodity, people need continuing support. Pure Water has been able to access unsecured sections of Cite Soleil and gained the acceptance of its community. Save the Children appreciates partnering with the PWW-Haiti project and looks forward to exploring avenues continuing our support of the children and their caregivers in Haiti,” said Donald Burgess of Save the Children in Haiti.
Help us continue our work together in Haiti.
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Announcement of New Haiti Country Director
April 14, 2010
Pure Water for the World is proud and pleased to announce Jean Succar as its new Haiti Country Director. Succar was chosen for his skill, experience and educational background following a complex international search process which included a large field of qualified applicants. He will bring to PWW’s efforts a significant contribution to Haiti’s reconstruction following the earthquake of January 12, 2010.
(In the Photo: L. to R. Mardi Jean Eric: Water Agent Soleil 4, Lanaud Derazin: Water Coordinator, Jean Succar: Country Director, Olivier Blaginy: Water Coordinator, Bob Mohr: President of the Board, And precious kids)
Succar has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida in Gainesville. He is aware of our many efforts in place to produce pure water and the consequences when it is not available. Among his projects was the design of a theoretical plant aimed at converting salt water into pure water. He holds an M.B.A. with an emphasis in Supply Chain, Competitive Advantage and Cost Control from Arizona State University in Tempe, Florida.
Succar was born and received his early education in Haiti. As the Executive Director of AFS/Western Union and his private venture Delicious Fruits, Succar established relationships throughout Haiti in government and private business.
In his PWW application, Succar stated, “The main reason I am applying for this position is…that I want to be involved in a sector that can make a difference in the Haitian life. Bad water is the cause of so many diseases in Haiti ranging from chronic diarrhea to cholera. I am willing to further Pure Water of the World’s mission of making this resource available to the world.”
The goal of Pure Water for the World, Inc. is to prevent people from suffering and dying from contaminated water and its consequences of intestinal parasites and illness. We do this through local manufacturing of sand water filters and by providing sustainable, clean, safe drinking water systems to families, schools, and communities in developing countries. In Haiti, Pure Water for the World (PWW) provides a package of services to reduce disease and to improve the health of children by providing point-of-use water purification, teacher training, and hygiene education to schools. In 18 months, PWW has trained 1,640 teachers to provide hygiene education and placed filter systems in 725 schools serving over 202,000 students. Since the January 12 earthquake PWW has:
- Delivered 665 tanker loads of chlorinated water totalling about 7.8 million litres. At our recent daily rate of delivery we have been serving about 82,000 people with 5 litres of water per day, six days a week. About 85-90% of deliveries are to the Cite Soleil area.
- Trained 50 community hygiene promoters, former teachers and principals in Cite Soleil schools to go back into their communities and classes to promote good hygiene practices. Twenty-nine are currently working in Cite Soleil and 21 are to start work next week¸ budget permitting.
- Identified 40 water reservoirs to be used as drop points for water tankers.
- Appointed 25 water agents to supervise the distribution of water from the reservoir; we have implemented a system of checks of deliveries by the water agents to ensure that the contracted loads of water arrive and are distributed free to community members.
Please help us continue our work in Haiti with a donation.
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A PWW Board Member’s Perspective on Haiti
March 25, 2010
I left for Haiti on 2/26 and returned 3/10. It was both worse and better than expected. The devastation was more wide spread. The spirit of the people is resolute. Buildings are constructed of concrete, block and rebar. Every collapsed building has a story. Many are still tombs. One school claimed over two hundred students.
For each lost home, a family is in despair. There is no insuarance to buffer loss, no councilors to soothe the grief. The lucky ones only lost all worldly possessions. Many of the buildings still standing are condemned and must be torn down.
Open spaces are filled with tent cities. People sleep away from buildings. Fear of another quake is pervasive. Over 55 aftershocks of higher than five feed that fear. At night, tents claim many neighborhood streets.
Dust fills the air, coating everything, irritating eyes and throats. Rain clears the air, providing a brief respite, but the dust turns into a paste that envelops your shoes growing thicker with each step. I returned with a sinus infection.
Pictures are inadequate, failing to convey depth, detail and impact. The scenes envelop the senses, a photo being just a single frame from a movie. Night brings the hum of generators that eventually yield to a chorus of crickets, dogs and rooster. The serenade lasts all night building to a lively crescendo at dawn. People emerge. Those lucky enough, go to work. The schools still standing will not open for another month. Damaged homes are dismantled by hand, with a sledge and a chisel. Rubble is pushed to the curb. Workmen work to keep the rubble from impinging on the by-ways, and the dust multiplies. The roads are clogged with vehicles from colorful group taxis called “tap-taps”; large tanker trucks with water splashing from their spouts making deliveries to camps; UN and US soldiers cruising in their Hummvees, armed with helmets, flack jackets and rifles; NGOs in their new SUVs scurry to the next important meeting; trucks making deliveries; all added to the mix of normal people looking for some normalcy. Strung along the sidewalks in a shopping area, with collapsed stores at their backs, a ribbon of vendors offer clothes, house wares, a variety of fruits, vegetables and assorted foods. An artist’s paintings hang from a make shift fence, a soft breeze carries the scent of chicken on a grill at the corner and the crowd ambles by. Everything takes much longer than expected, nothing is constant except changing plans, and the dust is ever present. The sun fades and the generators find their voice.
People are rebuilding, homes are going up. Food, clothing, medicine and water are in good supply. The emergency response period is past and recovery mode is in full swing. The homeless upper class received the best tents, lesser tents for the middle class, group tents for the lucky poor, for many just tarps to cobble a shelter, all on a colorful canvass of broken dreams. The poorest of the poor have even less than before. The rainy season is coming, cholera and typhoid looming, and people go about picking up the pieces.
Pure Water for the World is engaged. We were first on the scene to create safe drinking water for camps of people after the quake. Currently we deliver five liters of drinking quality water per person, per day for 82,000+ people, mostly in the poorest areas.
There are many heroic stories to tell, but for Haitians, life moves on.
Your support enables us, thank you,
Byron Miller
Pure Water for the World Board Member
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Medical team leaving Burlington, Vermont
January 23, 2010
A medical team sponsored by Pure Water for the World (PWW) and Angel Mission Haiti arrived in Port-au-Prince on Friday, January 22. Drs. Patti Fisher, Jean Andersson-Swayze, Anne Marie Gleeson and nurses Mary McLaughlin and Kathy Pomminville will spend the next two weeks in Port-au-Prince providing critically needed medical care to the victims of Haiti’s recent earthquake.
This is Dr. Fisher’s fifteenth trip to Haiti in the past nine years, where she has previously worked in medical clinics in remote villages in northern Haiti. With the financial and on-the-ground support of Pure Water for the World, the team of three doctors and two nurses traveled via an Angel Mission Haiti chartered flight to Port-au-Prince and be working in an Angel Mission Haiti clinic for the next two weeks. The medical team was also able to transport much needed medical supplies to assist them in treating the vast numbers of injured Haitians.
Pure Water for the World is committed to providing clean water for the medical team both for drinking and medical purposes. The importance of clean water extends far beyond clean drinking water. As our doctors and nurses work to treat the injured, there is also an urgent need for clean water for wound care. Contaminated water significantly increases the risk of wound infection and delays healing. Now, even more than ever, the need for clean water for our medical teams remains a top priority.
Update on Staff in Haiti-
Our staff in Haiti continues to assist those impacted by the earthquake, even as they themselves have been displaced from their homes. The continued aftershocks have rendered the staff house inhabitable and as such our staff is sleeping on the streets. Despite these ongoing enormous challenges, they continue to work tirelessly to deliver water and install filters at the recently established refugee camps. A water distribution center has also been set up at the filter factory and is providing an estimated 300 gallons of clean water daily to a refugee camp across the street.
Pure Water remains committed to its mission to provide clean water to Haiti and to the ongoing support of our medical teams now working there.
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Reports from Haiti
January 20, 2010
David Putt, Interim Director
Water shortage
There is not enough water in Port-au-Prince now. Most of the population used to get their water from tanker trucks, collected by the jug each day. Better off families in our area have cisterns, and these were filled by the tanker trucks. The poor drink the same water even though it is often contaminated. The shortage of water is mostly due to a lack of diesel fuel to keep the trucks running, and because so many cisterns need filling.
Some poorer people also drink well water that is usually highly polluted. As the water scarcity progresses, people are forced to drink poorer and poorer quality water, whatever is available. Our filters will be useful to purify both cistern water and the well water that people now are resorting to. Here we drink filtered cistern water. Our tank is being drained faster than we anticipated because the family downstairs has expanded to include 8 or 10 relatives who have lost their homes.
In many places existing water tanks have been damaged – as a result cisterns are being drained more quickly.
An orphan on our doorstep
We had a little guy of about eight years old turn up today who walked 10 km from beyond the airport to a hospital in Delmas looking for his mother and father. He had been left with neighbors, and he had been told that his parents had been taken to hospital. Everyone where he was had lost their house and he was the only remaining kid [in his family].
He had the name of the hospital and so he put on his little backpack and started walking to the hospital, and when he got there no one knew anything about his parents.
Marie-Paule brought him home and fed him. He’s looking lost but we will keep him with us for now and find some situation for him. He’s alert and sharp and active, but tired. He walked for hours.
Roman Cipus, Director of Operations
PWW Staff Update
Yesterday I met with Laura Guerrier (the PWW Data Entry/Secretary); she lost everything, but survived without injuries … so did her parents.
My wife and I provided her some clothes and personal stuff for her and her parents.
I also received a phone call from Jean Bates who works at the filter factory; he is safe and back in Belladere (his home by the frontier).
Yesterday afternoon finally I got a hold on Mr. Durval (he also works at the filter factory). His daughter, 14 years old, died in a school collapse, his wife was badly injured and is in a hospital, and his home collapsed. He had no injuries, but is exhausted and tired. But nonetheless this morning he came back to the filter factory and helped clean up the debris.
The need continues. Please consider helping our work in Haiti with a donation – click here
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Generous Acts of Kindness Make An Impact
January 16, 2010
Since Tuesday afternoon’s earthquake, Pure Water for the World has received many offers of assistance in its effort to help the people of Haiti. A group of radio stations is raising funds to rebuild the water program in schools in Cite Soleil. A documentarian will travel through the Dominican Republic to reach Haiti. A group of Burlington, Vermont doctors came together to form the “PWW Medical team”. Many professionals are offering their services to help in whatever way they can and there are offers of help to rebuild our Port-au-Prince filter facility.
To the hundreds of our supporters who have so generously donated to our efforts, thank you.
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.
Please donate if you can by clicking here. Our work is beginning anew in Haiti.
Thank you to all who have supported us. We will continue to keep you updated on our efforts to assist the people of Haiti.
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There’s no water. There’s nothing.
January 14, 2010
Amid the heartbreaking reports from Haiti, today’s Associated Press coverage of the ongoing disaster relief includes a doctor’s assistant working at a triage center quoted as saying, “There’s no water. There’s nothing. Thirsty people are going to die.”
Response to the tragedy from around the globe includes mobilizing water and food distribution to Haitians in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. This aid is very much needed. But bottles of water – even trucks of water – will not prove sustainable. In days, we can expect reports of cholera outbreaks. The cholera bacterium can spread rapidly in areas with inadequate treatment of sewage and drinking water, especially areas that have suffered a natural disaster. This problem will impact everyone in Haiti , including those who survived the earthquake with no injuries.
With your continued support, Pure Water for the World can help.
We are pleased to report that our staff is safe and is already working to provide medical care to their family, friends and neighbors. They report that drinkable water supplies are dwindling at a rapid rate, and the need to create a sustainable system is urgent. Half of Pure Water’s concrete filters and all of the ceramic filters were broken by the earthquake. We are working to ship plastic filters to our staff until the filter plant becomes operational again.
Pure Water for the World is prepared to meet these challenges, and we will continue to move quickly to address the needs. But our plans will be left undone without continued financial help.
Your support is very much appreciated, here and in Haiti . To donate now, please follow this link.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Crowley Meub
Executive Director
Pure Water for the World
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Haitian Earthquake
January 13, 2010
Dear Friends of Pure Water for the World,
A major earthquake struck southern Haiti late Tuesday afternoon, destroying thousands of buildings and much of the already fragile infrastructure in this hemisphere’s poorest nation. There is no doubt that there will be significant loss of life as a result.
While I hoped to write this letter once I could confirm to you that all of our staff members, partners and facilities are safe and sound, I have only been able to contact some of our staff from Pure Water for the World in Haiti since the earthquake struck. I remain hopeful that everyone is safe, despite the enormity of the disaster.
I will continue to monitor the situation closely and attempt to reach our Haiti workers to gather information on the conditions on the ground. As I discover details, I will report them to you. In the meantime, we are vigorously preparing to help the residents of Haiti in any way that we can, regardless of the condition of our facilities. The need for clean water will be even more essential now than ever. Your continued support is needed and appreciated.
The best way you can help today is to provide a donation through our Web site. All funds collected will be used to provide clean water in Haiti .
To donate now, please click here.
We will provide more information about the health of our staff and the condition of our facilities as we learn more. Thank you for your concerns and for your generous support in this critical time of need.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Meub
Executive Director
Pure Water for the World
