The Secret Weapon Eradicating Cholera in Haiti - Water Women

As I was driving up a beautiful Haitian mountainside to a village recently infected with Cholera, my mind began to think about the contrast of beauty and tragedy. I knew I would experience a beautiful land and people, but I also knew we were headed into the path of a deadly disease. In 2011, there was a Cholera epidemic in Haiti that killed thousands of people, and in 2017, Cholera was once again rearing its ugly head.

I spent a little time prepping for this trip by learning that Cholera is primarily transmitted by ingesting water that is contaminated with the Cholera bacteria. The treatment for Cholera is actually quite simple and includes rehydration and in some cases, small doses of antibiotics. Rehydration sounds simple, but if you have no clean water the disease quickly escalates. In my next blog post, we’ll learn just how quickly this can happen.

We arrived in the village to a large crowd of people. I’m working with an NGO called Water with Blessings. They do work here in Haiti and in Honduras and have done small projects in 42 other countries. Sister Larraine Lauter runs this ecumenical water outreach and her secret weapon is her Water Women program.

Water Women become the water champions of the villages in which they live. They’re randomly chosen at a ratio of 1 Water Woman to every 4 households. The Water With Blessings team is very proficient at using their lean staff to train trainers all throughout the countries in which they work. The trainers then train the Water Women. Trainers are mostly women, but there are some men as well. The training lasts about 3 hours and is very thorough and teaches the Water Women how to use their Sawyer filters, as well as their responsibility to share their water with 3 additional households. There is tremendous community participation in Haiti where these Water Women will focus on the bold task of eliminating Cholera in the whole country!

There was a large gathering of children in the village who were full of smiles and were eager to have their photos taken, although there were a few camera-shy ones at the beginning. I am always drawn to the smiles and laughter of the children. Even though we don’t speak the same language, smiles and laughter bring universal joy and the children always win my heart.

As I listened to different women sharing stories of Cholera in their villages, there was a reality that everyone in these villages had been affected by Cholera in some way. Many had lost loved ones and children which brought about a fear of the river which was the source of their drinking water.

On this particular day, hope for a Cholera-Free life was brought to the 60 Water Women who came to the training. From those 60 Women, 240 households would now have access to clean water. I can only imagine how many lives will be saved!

There are a lot of diseases in the world that we have not yet found a cure for. There are some diseases like Cholera that can be easily prevented using cost effective Sawyer water filters. Today, my heart is full of gladness that these 60 Water Women will provide clean water for 240 households. My heart also breaks with the thought that children and adults in Haiti and around the world will die of water borne sickness that could be so easily prevented. I believe a radical dose of generosity can solve this crisis and transform the world in our lifetimes. 

Blog Post: Haiti - The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Like any mission trip and many things in life, Tom Petty had it right, “the waiting is the hardest part.” It is Saturday in Haiti. We woke up early for breakfast after a good night sleep. Since we did not have AC and it was hot last night, I cooled down by soaking a towel in water and laying it over me like a blanket since I was sleeping under a fan. That did the trick! After breakfast, we packed up and headed to the airport where we would pick up a rental car to drive to the other side of the island.

The waiting would begin here as our rental car was not ready at 9am. Fortunately, by 12pm it finally was ready! The good thing was, we had a lot of time to get to know the team, and I was able to train two of the girls that work with Water With Blessings on how to use GIS (Geographical Information Systems) software for the research they were about to conduct on Cholera reduction. I know, it’s nerdy, but I felt myself “having to” be productive. Tomorrow the WWB team will get to practice GIS in a Hattian village as they install Sawyer filters.

Once we loaded up into the rental vehicle, we began our 3 ½ hour drive around the island. We arrived at a Catholic guest house and settled into our rooms. They were tidy, clean and hot, but at least we had a fan in our room. We were served a late lunch which was delicious… baked chicken legs, rice, some vegetables, and a sweet potato/ginger dessert.

After we ate we headed up to our room and I took about a 30-minute nap. My roommate Bryan is a photographer for Reuters and he popped off his bed and said, “I’m going out to take some photos! I haven’t shot anything all day and I’ve got to grab some photos!” I knew what he was feeling. Why is it that the hardest part of many situations in life is waiting? As much time as I’ve spent training mission trip groups over the years to be flexible and not to worry about time, I still get antsy when “we are not being productive.”

Just when a thought like that comes into my head, I’m reminded that sometimes waiting and relationship building ARE the productive times. So, I wrestle on this clean water mission. One side of me want to hurry up and start installing clean water filters so people’s lives can be changed, and the other side of me knows that I have to learn to be patient, listen, look around, and wait, as God wants to change my life.

If it wasn’t for the waiting, I would have missed taking in the drive today that was full of memories from previous experiences in my travels. As I took in the sights of Haiti, my mind flashed back to scenes of market traffic in Monrovia, Liberia. As we existed Port-au-Prince, the landscape looked much like hills of Tijuana, Mexico where I’ve been around thousands of house building worksites. Making our way near the coast I could see beautiful turquois water on one side of the road, and small rural farms and fruit stands on the other side of the road that reminded me of Fiji.

If it wasn’t for the waiting, I may not have walked through the town we are staying in, greeting many people on the streets. I would have missed the late afternoon hour where people were gathering their drinking water from a local canal that was also used for washing clothes and bathing. I wondered how many children would be sick from that water.

You see, it’s in the waiting that God does some of His best work in us. It’s in the waiting where we see and experience things we might not otherwise take in. Sometimes those things are very difficult, and sometimes the waiting can test our patience. But if we embrace the waiting, we have the opportunity to come out better for it on the other side.

On my next post, I’ll take you into a Haitian village that will receive clean drinking water filters through a program called Water Women.

Landing in Haiti

I left San Diego at 10pm on Thursday, stopped over for a 6-hour layover in Miami, and made it all the way to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. My flight was FULL of relief workers from the US. There were lots of clean water organizations represented, most of them were drilling wells in Haiti. As we were flying, I found myself wondering what Haiti was really going to be like? How much had Haiti recovered from the Earthquake of 2010 and the Hurricane of 2016? From the view at the airport, it looks like they have made quite a bit of progress. The airport was small and simple, but newer and orderly.

The first thing I had to do when I walked inside the airport was to stop at a booth and pay a $10 tourist visa fee. That was the same drill as other Latin American countries I’ve been to. From there we made our way to the passport stamp area. In many countries, I do not look forward to this line, but I have to say, for being one of the poorest countries on earth, Haiti’s passport and customs clearance was the best I’ve ever seen. They had lots of lines open and they sent us right through. I was faced with the question, “How could this be?” It definitely was not what I expected, but it was great! My first lesson of the week was that a 3^rd world country could teach a thing or two to a 1^st world country. That was a humbling thought.

When I got through customs, I walked into a lobby area. As I looked outside, I saw that the airport was pretty modern, but there was a sea of people waiting to pick people up. It reminded me a lot of flying into Liberia. There must have been 15 guys who offered to carry my bags and get me a taxi. Everybody was hustling for business. I had to wait 1 hour for the rest our group to arrive so I just kept turning down taxi drivers. I did manage to buy a Sim card for my phone while I was waiting. I got 3GB of data that in most countries would cost me about $30 to $40. Here in Haiti…$10. First thing I did was call my wife. I’m missing her already.

Our team finally arrived and we headed to the guest house where we are staying tonight. It is clean but very basic. There was a clean bathroom, not by my standards at home, but hygienically clean. There was a shower with cold water, but at least we had a shower. My room has 7 twin beds in it with 3 fans. The room is a basic wood frame with some plywood walls, about 3 feet of screen for windows, and a shed style roof with plywood and corrugated metal.

There is certainly nothing fancy about this room, but I’m sure it is like a mansion compared to the way many people live in Haiti. I will soon discover if that assumption is true.

Right before dinner, there was a youth soccer practice on the field next door. The kids were really good! I hate to break it to the NFL, MLB, and NBA fans but It doesn’t matter where I go, soccer is the World’s sport. Maybe Fiji would argue that for them it is Rugby.

We missed lunch today so by the time dinner was ready, I was really hungry. As my old Louisiana buddy Michael Henry would say, “I could eat the horns off a Billy goat!” Our dinner was really good. There was some sort of meat, mac & cheese, greens, potatoes, carrots, and homemade bread. It really hit the spot!

After dinner, I was pretty much a sweaty, sticky mess so I got cleaned up and now I am sitting in front of one of the bedroom fans trying to keep cool.

Tomorrow we’ll drive about 4 hours to our home base for the rest of the week. We’ll be visiting villages that recently had Cholera outbreaks. I’m already wondering what that will be like? What will I see? What will I feel? What will I learn? Stay tuned!

Haiti - Past Devastation, Future Hope

On Tuesday, January 12th, 2010, at 4:53pm Haiti experienced a 7.0 magnitude earthquake just 16 miles West of the capital of Port-au-Prince. By January 24th, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded. An estimated 3 million people were affected by the quake and the death toll was somewhere between 100,000 to 160,000 people. The government of Haiti estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged.

On January 22nd the United Nations noted that the emergency phase of the relief operation was drawing to a close, and on the following day, the Haitian government officially called off the search for survivors.

Give Clean Water was just a little over a year old as a non-profit, but people wanted to know if we would have a response. After a series of phone calls and coordinated efforts, Give Clean Water, Newbreak church, and Behr Paint mobilized 3,000 Sawyer water filters and 3,000 buckets to be distributed through the Convoy of Hope relief effort that helped over 30,000 people! That was a powerful expression of God's love to the people of Haiti.

A year ago, Hurricane Matthew battered the South side of Haiti causing damages equivalent to 32% of GDP. A third of the hospitals were affected and 500 schools were destroyed. In addition, there were losses to agriculture, fishing, and livestock which will have a long-term impact on the affected areas.

Tomorrow night, I will board a flight from San Diego to Miami, and then to Haiti as part of a Cholera reduction study between Sawyer and Water With Blessings. I'll be helping them set up their GIS data collection processes so they can quantify the elimination of Cholera in the villages that will receive water filters.

I've never been to Haiti before, although I know many people who have. Haiti remains the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world with a GDP per capita of $846. As reported by the World Bank, more than 6 million out of 10.4 million (59%) Haitians live under the national poverty line of US $2.41 per day and over 2.5 million (24%) live under the national extreme poverty line of US $1.23 per day.

What will I see? What will I feel? What will I learn? I know we'll be visiting villages that have recently experienced Cholera outbreaks but don't worry, as Cholera is a water-borne disease and we will be traveling with our Sawyer filters that will keep us safe. That said, I really have no idea what to expect. My experience will unfold LIVE in the moment and I'm going to do my best to take you along for the ride and share my experience. Stay tuned!