Physical Health Haiti Project #8369

Ensure the sustainability of clean water in Haiti

by International Action

Project Report | Mar 28, 2012
103 kids at Quatre Evangelistes have clean water

By Zach Brehmer | Director of Research

These 103 children are healthy and ready to learn

We are charging ahead with the Sud-Est Clean Water Initiative, centered around Jacmel, Haiti. By the end of May, we will have installed water treatment systems in 53 more schools and many hospitals and public office buildings. February 7, 2012 marked the start of our full schedule of water treatment installations in the south-east of Haiti. We will complete three installations a week. You can check out reports from the field at www.HaitiWater.org to follow our progress.

The first wave of installations will include eight schools and one hospital. Collège les Quatre Evangelistes, a school, was the first completed on February 7. The 103 students of Collège les Quatre Evangelistes now have clean water because of their new 150-gallon tank and chlorinator. The students’ families and nearby residents in the neighborhood also have access to the clean water at the school.

To appreciate the full impact of the installation at Collège les Quatre Evangelistes, we have to look at who exactly we are helping, not just how many.

Collège les Quatre Evangelistes is one of the most innovative schools in all of Haiti. In large part this is because it is one of the most affordable schools in Haiti – many children in Haiti do not attend school because their parents cannot afford the price of private schools (all schools in Haiti are private schools.) The teachers are volunteers. This shows how important this school is: teachers are willing to volunteer on a near full-time basis. Collège les Quatre Evangelistes gives parents a chance to send their students to schools, regardless of how much they can pay.

The cost is not the only innovative aspect of this school. The school’s Director, Rigaud Emmanuel Rousseau, is teaching these 103 students not only academics, but also the importance of building up their community. The school’s mission is to give a quality education to students and to encourage them to help build up their community, both now and in the future.

Moreover, Mr. Rigaud also uses the school space for community events such as microcredit classes for women and nutrition programs for children.

“What you did for us today is beyond amazing. Can you imagine that we’ve been here for this many years without clean water? I promise to allow the community to come after school hours to also get clean water. Please thank your donors and may God continue to bless them. You’ve given us hope”

Rigaud Emmanuel Rousseau Director of Collège les Quatre Evangelistes

The clean water these 103 students, family members, and women of the community can now access will immediately improve their health, allowing them to spend less time collecting water and increasing the potential this school can offer to all students and community members involved. And remember, this is just one school: there are 53 other schools waiting.

Thank you to all those that made this possible.

The International Action Team

Links:

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Jan 12, 2012
18,600 kids in Jacmel to have clean water by June

By Zach Brehmer | Director of Research

Ecole La Dignite - by Architects for Humanity

International Action’s focus in 2012 is to bring clean water to Jacmel and 5 other cities in Haiti’s Sud-est Department. Our first focus in the Sud-est of Haiti is to bring clean water to over 18,000 children at 50 Jacmel schools. We want to support these 18,000 students and their education by ensuring that they are drinking clean, safe water. All of these schools have a water source, but they do not have an effective way to treat water. We are going to provide the directors and teachers of these schools with a way to disinfect their water.

The full schedule of installations will begin on February 1 and will be completed by the end of May. However, we are ahead of schedule and have already begun installations!

The first installation at a school was completed on December 21:

In collaboration with fellow Clinton Global Initiative Haiti Action Network member Architecture for Humanity, International Action has installed the first clean water system for the Southeast water project at École La Dignité, a primary school in the town of Cayes-Jacmel. École La Dignité, headed by Mrs. Vivianne Vieux, is the only free private school in Jacmel. The school supports 8 localities, some of which are 3 km away from the school, including Corrail Soult, Nan Model and La Pierre. The school currently has 227 students from grades 1-6, but will now open its doors to students in grades 7 and 8.

International Action has installed a 2,000-gallon water tank and chlorinator at the school. According to Mrs. Vieux, the new clean water infrastructure means that her students will no longer go thirsty or have to worry about waterborne illnesses. Mrs. Vieux is also very happy that her students will no longer have to climb the steep hill home with buckets of water on their heads, because they now have clean water in their neighborhood.

After the school day is done, Ecole La Dignite serves as a community center for local fishing communities, art programs, and church groups. All of these people will have access to the clean water provided by International Action’s water system.

International Action’s Southeast water project aims to install clean water infrastructure in 50 schools in the region. École La Dignité is the first beneficiary. That’s one down, and 49 more to go.

Clean water infrastructure at Ecole La Dignite

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Oct 25, 2011
Back To School With Clean Water and Renewed Hope

By Zach Brehmer | Director of Research

Children helping to bring tank lid to their school

Dear Friends,

Back to School! For students starting the new school year at Collège Chrétien Emmanuel, Ecole Nationale de Thozin, and Collège Vision Moderne, back to school supplies include… paper? (check)… pencils? (check)… uniform? (check)… and clean water? CHECK! In July of this year we installed clean water systems at these three schools, ensuring the 2,193 students would have access to clean, safe water for the upcoming 2011-2012 school year.

Can you imagine having to include clean water on your school supply check list? Many Haitian students cannot check off clean water as something they have to begin the school year. 16% of all children-under-five deaths in Haiti are caused by waterborne disease, according to the UN Special Task Force to Haiti. This must be improved. Under our watch, it will be.

In October 2010 we started our Clean Water for Schools project. Working with American Institutes for Research (AIR) and other partners we have helped provide clean water to 43,494 children at 161 schools throughout Haiti. Watch this video from Haiti. These kids are so excited about having clean water they are helping us carry the water tank lid up the hill! They are excited because this is the first time they get clean drinking water at school. What a great year this is for them. They will study in a new school assembled by American Institute for Research and quench their thirst with safe, clean drinking water from International Action.

They can hardly wait for the semester to start. Can’t you feel their excitement?

Remember…..Your support has made this possible.

Here is how the program began:

October 2010 – In the communities where we had installed a chlorinator, children had access to clean, safe water. However, children were still getting sick because they were traveling outside their home community to go to school and were drinking untreated water at school. We started our Clean Water for Schools program to address the issue quickly.

How it grew:

April 2011 – By this point we had installed water tanks at 73 schools in Cité Soleil, the most impoverished community in Port-au-Prince. These schools together serve 12,994 children. We had also started to install clean water system in schools built by AIR – they had constructed 60 schools, with a grant from USAID, that were in need of clean water.

Where we are now:

August 2011 – 49,325 children now have access to clean water after less than a year of work – all because of YOUR support. The project with AIR has been completed. Now, other schools are asking for our help. 54 schools in the South East Department of Haiti have sent us help request letters. There are over 24,000 children at these schools without access to water. We have responded and plan to start installing in January 2012.

None of this would have been possible without a full-team effort by our board members, our staff, our partners, teachers and parents in Haiti, and you. We thank you greatly for your help.

Warm regards and deepest thanks,

The International Action Team

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