GlobalGiving.org: Haiti Water Relief

Haiti Cholera Epidemic Update

Wendell Adams — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:31:20 GMT

WaterBrick Attends MPHISE summit in Haiti

December 1, 2011 (Grand’Anse, Haiti) – Wendell Adams, founder of WaterBrick International joined Dr. Michael McDonald, the Coordinator for Haiti MPHISE and the President & Executive Director of Global Health Initiatives, Inc., and numerous other teams members focusing on presenting a sustainable solution to their water filtration, water storage and overall initiative to stop the spread of the Cholera epidemic. Numerous solutions were successfully demonstrated and well received by various local officials. See picture of one demonstration.

The feedback from these demonstrations was reported back to the U.S. Congressional sub-committee for Haiti by Dr. McDonald on December 7, 2011 and was well received.

MPHISE and WaterBrick: Haiti Cholera Epidemic Update

January 17, 2012 (Grand’Anse, Haiti) - The cholera epidemic in the Pestel commune in Grand’Anse has produced a significant and growing number of severe Cholera cases resulting in death. This specific cholera outbreak is concentrated in the mountain region above the town of Pestel and has gained recognition of several aid organizations. MPHISE is currently organizing a Phase II Cholera Epidemic Management Initiative working to turn around a moribund “hospital” in Pestel.

According to Dr. Michael McDonald, “the number of people being infected has also dropped significantly along with the mild cases of diarrhea (and potential mild cholera cases), due to household water purification and safe water storage due to WaterBrick water containers. WaterBrick water containers have a critical role to play in this element of the Phase II interventions.”

Dr. McDonald continues by saying, “Unless the Phase II Cholera Epidemic Management Initiative can be engaged sustainably country-wide, Haiti will continue to fail to manage its deadly epidemic. Easily a million more Haitians could be infected and thousands of lives lost in the fourth, fifth, and sixth waves of the epidemic, if the same epidemic management and governance approaches that were used in the first three waves of the epidemic continue.”

Dow Chemical and WaterBrick: Helping MPHISE with Cholera Treatment Test Pilots

February 3, 2012 (Grand’Anse, Haiti) – The MPHISE Phase II Cholera Epidemic Management Initiative has recently started four new Cholera Treatment Centers in the mountainous villages above Pestel. WaterBrick International is partnering with Dow Chemical to produce WaterBrick containers for these four villages that will be used as a model for a larger scale initiative for the entire country. Dow will be funding resin for the test pilot to produce these WaterBrick containers and continue with our shared humanitarian efforts.

According to Joe Loeffler, the Vice President with Dow Chemical, “…we are confident that very good WaterBricks can be made from this resin to service the needs of getting clean water to areas of need.”

WaterBrick International will continue to work with Dow Chemical to support the MPHISE Phase II Initiative and stop the spread of Cholera in Haiti.

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Helping by Thinking Sustainable

Wendell Adams — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:50:28 GMT

Since the Haiti earthquake, WaterBrick was focused on helping with the immediate needs. We are excited about helping in a more sustainable way now. We are partnering with MPhise (http://haiti.mphise.net/) and We Advance (http://weadvance.org/) along with our partnership with Dow Chemical (see Dow Partner Report link attached) to assist in a larger initiative of water sustainability as MPhise states "the mission of the Water Working Group is to provide potable water to Haiti in a manner that will reduce, and eventually largely eradicate water-borne disease in Haiti".

But fighting disease is more than just fighting it at the water source. Helping to provide basic housing to the nearly 1 million displaced Haitians also helps with disease and other social injustices. As Mphise said on their site, "We heard testimonies of the many diseases contracted by people living under tarps, of the pain of women suffering from all kinds of violence, and of children who cannot attend school or plan for their futures in these conditions. We see how the planned camps (like Corail) have become hell and do not offer conditions within which life can flourish." To read more on their report, click on the MPhise Report link attached.

WaterBrick is working on the final development to provide a 10 foot by 12 foot house in a box that meets the needs of the Haitian people. We will provide more once this is finalized.

In the meantime, I am leaving for Haiti Friday November 25th for 5 days to participate in a Water Initiative project with MPhise and in a demonstration for the United Nations. We will provide a better update on this as we have more to report.

If you'd like to help in more ways that just in donations, help comes in many forms. E-mail us your thoughts at info@waterbrick.org.

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Partnering with Convoy of Hope

Wendell Adams — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:56:12 GMT

It is absolutely crucial to work with humanitarian agencies on the ground in Haiti that can assist with distribution. Convoy of Hope is yet another humanitarian partner to help us in Haiti. We will provide more pictures as we receive them back from the field.

There is also still a huge need for bleach as they continue to fight cholera and it will be an ongoing battle for years to come. The need for clean drinking containers continues as well as they have to retrieve and store water as the standard tap we are accustomed to is not an option.

We thank you for your continued support. Any help you can still provide, including telling friends about our work, would be greatly appreciated.

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Haiti Cholera Impact Continues

Wendell Adams — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:06:14 GMT

WaterBrick containers in use in Haiti

WaterBrick containers continue to be distributed to other remote areas of Haiti to families in dire need. WaterBricks, now used by families as their portable pantries, are being distributed by not only the Love A Child Foundation, but also by World Vision and Partners in Health. The picture here shows our WaterBrick container being used to collect water at one of their well sites. Continuing to distribute WaterBricks for clean water and food storage while providing bleach for sanitation, is key in helping Haiti recover from not only its devastation, but also its current outbreak of cholera.

The BBC reported in March, that the cholera outbreak is said to be far worse than was originally predicted and that it will take far longer to control. In fact, "latest figures show there have been 252,640 cases and 4,672 deaths.” A spokesman for the World Health Organization said, “We really need to reconstruct water and sanitation systems for the cholera epidemic to go away completely. It's a long-term process and cholera is going to be around for a number of years yet." But the researchers say thousands of lives could be saved by provision of clean water, vaccination and expanded access to antibiotics.

Your continued support is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions and would like to contact us directly, e-mail us at info@waterbrick.org or call us at 877-420-9283.

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WaterBrick Facebook Fan Page

Love A Child Distributes WaterBrick's in Haiti

Wendell Adams — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:19:52 GMT

Love a Child distributing WaterBrick containers

Love A Child just distributed more of our interlocking and stackable WaterBrick water and food storage containers in their new Miracle Village in the town of Fond Parisien outside of Port-Au-Prince. Some earthquake survivors, in the Love A Child Miracle Village, have moved into their newly built homes but many are still living in tents as you can see in the picture attached.

When explaining the need for clean water containers, like WaterBrick, Sherry Burnette with Love A Child said, “this is especially important now since we have a huge Cholera epidemic here in Haiti”. However, Sherry said that, “this time we packed each WaterBrick with macaroni, oatmeal and cereal” but the families can reuse WaterBrick’s for water and food for many years to come. When giving them to children, Sherry also noted that, “these WaterBricks are easy for small children to carry to their home or their hut”.

Since the Haiti earthquake on January 12^th of last year, we continue to raise donations to provide clean WaterBrick water and food containers, 8,400 distributed so far, and have provided 3,500 gallons of bleach and chlorine to help fight the Cholera outbreak. To date, over 3,400 people have died due to the Cholera outbreak and it actually accelerated in December so the need is still great.

Your continued support is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions and would like to contact us directly, e-mail us at info@waterbrick.org or call us at 877-420-9283.

Love a Child distributing WaterBrick containers

Haitian children carrying WaterBricks

Tent City prior to new Love A Child Homes

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Haiti Update from TEDx Peachtree

Kevin Adams — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:39:33 GMT

Here is a speech update of WaterBrick's involvement and continued assessment of the needs in Haiti. This speech was given at TEDx Peachtree on November 5, 2010 in Atlanta. TED is a great world-wide non-profit organization that hosts day long local events, called TEDx, featuring speakers that have "Ideas Worth Spreading". We were asked to keep it under 10 minutes so we focused on the main points over the 10 months we have been involved. Check out our speech update at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlVh_YJ3Mb8.

For any questions or new ideas on how we can create partnerships and provide help in Haiti, contact us at info@waterbrick.org as we welcome your feedback. As an example, we have partnered with Global Giving, Love A Child, Dow Chemical, and Brenntag. Brenntag just answered our call by providing 2,700 gallons of bleach (in addition to our bleach donation of 1,000 gallons) to help stop the cholera outbreak for example. We are in the process of creating partnerships with Clean the World, Partners in Health and MAP International to create synergy that accelerates help for the many needs in Haiti.

Have ideas that could help us in our Haiti efforts? Reach out and let us know your thoughts at info@waterbrick.org.

Love A Child helping with Cholera Outbreak

Wendell Adams — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:11:56 GMT

WaterBrick has partnered with Love A Child, a non-profit Christian Humanitarian Organization, that has been helping in Haiti since 1991. While there relationships will certainly make it easier to pass through the red tape of importing goods, the bigger benefit is that they are a trusted Haiti distribution source to get our donated goods to those in need. To learn more about the wonderful work that this organization does everyday, go to http://www.loveachild.com/.

In response to the recent cholera outbreak, WaterBrick has donated 1,000 gallons of bleach to Love A Child to distribute to be used as a disinfectant to stop this outbreak. We are actively contacting corporate donors to increase this donation of bleach through Love A Child and your help would be appreciated through contacts you may have so let us know at info@waterbrick.org. As of this November 11th report, More than 80 people have died in the last 24 hours across the country, according to the health ministry, taking the death toll to 724. Hurricane Tomas has magnified the problem in recent days causing this outbreak to reach Port-Au-Prince putting at risk the millions living in tent cities. For more information on this story, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11736833. Dirty drinking containers reused out of the garbage dumps is one cause for the spread of cholera and is why it is so important for us to continue providing clean drinking containers. Dr. Claude Surena, the head of the Haiti Medical Association, told us personally when we were in Haiti that they would need at minimum 250,000 containers.

For pictures of our work in Haiti from your donations, go to http://waterbrickpictures.shutterfly.com/pictures/119. We will add more pictures at this link to show our recent donations currently being distributed in our next update. We appreciate your continued support from either yourself, your friends or your family by going to http://www.globalgiving.org/4578. If you have any questions, you can contact as directly at info@waterbrick.org.

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To Donate

Helping Haiti with Longer Term Strategy

Wendell Adams — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:48:05 GMT

WaterBricks stack for water and food storage

WaterBrick’s are already being distributed in Haiti with help from Dow Chemical, the Red Cross, Global Giving and nearly 400 donors like you. Dow Chemical announced their support of WaterBrick in Haiti when they issued a press release on April 8th and their Chairman and CEO, Andrew Liveris, stated, “We are very proud to be working with WaterBrick International to help bring much needed relief to the Haitian people … And because WaterBricks can be repurposed, these materials will generate zero waste, which is in line with our sustainability commitments." For the full press release, go to www.dow.com and site search WaterBrick. To date, Dow Chemical has donated 610,000 pounds of plastic resin to be used for WaterBrick containers to help Haiti relief efforts.

How is the WaterBrick container helping in Haiti? Made of rugged, high density polyethylene with an easy grip comfort handle, it can hold 3.5 Gallons of Liquid or up to 27 Pounds (264 Meals) of Dry Food. These unique dry storage containers, unlike any other, add value by cross stacking up to 7 feet for maximum efficient storage or can be used as a building block for transitional basic shelter. It has a wide lid opening that easily allows an average adult to pull stored contents out of the container. It stores water, food or anything you want to keep dry or store efficiently. Also, it has an ultra violet additive so it is non-biodegradable and therefore can be repurposed for 15 years by the people in Haiti; thus having long term benefits. We have included a picture of the WaterBrick stacking so that you can see firsthand how efficiently it can store water and food in Haiti.

Going forward, WaterBrick is committed to a longer term strategy in Haiti based on forming new corporate sponsorships, like with Dow Chemical, working with larger humanitarian agencies and increasing our grass roots donations; all through our relationship with Global Giving.

Our next report will include pictures of WaterBricks being used in Haiti for water and food storage.

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Haiti Relief Convoy

Wendell Adams — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:08:45 GMT

I traveled to Haiti on February 9th to meet with Rotary 4060 in Santo Domingo of the Dominican Republic. This was Rotary 4060’s Disaster Relief Committee meeting to plan, schedule, allocate donated funds, map and plan truck convoys to Port-au-Prince (PAP) and, to introduce WaterBrick to its members. It was decided that WaterBrick would be warehoused and distributed from 4060’s UN Cargo location in PAP. In PAP, I was introduced to and met with Dr. Claude Surena, President of Haiti’s Medical Association, to discuss their need for WaterBrick and how distribution would be implemented. Dr. Surena said they needed a minimum of 400,000 WaterBricks which would be 2 per their 200,000 tents requested from the United Nations that would arrive soon. Dr. Surena stated that water and food storage containers were necessary to establish sustainability for the homeless but that 750,000 was really needed to make a real difference. The first container load of WaterBricks is now on its way to Port-au-Prince in Haiti with additional manufacturing underway for many future loads to be delivered.

Also, we delivered food, medications and WaterBricks to the Good Samaritan Hospital and two orphanages in PAP. We then made commitments to return with additional WaterBricks and food on our next trip in early March. After our forty-hour convoy to deliver these much needed supplies and, without sleep, we returned back to Santo Domingo and I flew home on February 16th with a much better understanding about the needs of Haiti and its many homeless families. We need to continue our efforts with greater commitment and understanding that this is only the beginning of the worst; yet to come.

New truckload of WaterBricks Ready to Ship

Wendell Adams — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:22:23 GMT

A new truck load of nearly 4,500 WaterBricks are ready to ship, bound for Haiti. These contain 15,300 gallons of water that will be distributed to their two make-shift hospitals. They will be used for their patients and also in their orphanages. Thank you for your support of this project so far! We will continue to update you on progress as this project continues and will send photos soon.