Safe Water & On-going Relief in Haiti

Long-term impact requires strong partnerships at all levels.  DSI has always focused on identifying existing strengths and collaborating with local partners.  Our recent activities have led to close partnerships with large-scale actors like UNICEF and DINEPA (the Haitian government’s Directorate of Water and Sanitation) as well as local community leaders, health agents, and vendors.  DINEPA has established a goal of providing all families in rural areas with access to an approved, affordable chlorine product to treat their water at the household level.  Gadyen Dlo, DSI’s locally produced chlorine product, is the product of choice for the third phase of DINEPA’s chlorine distributions.  Our partnership aims to provide 260,000 families, or over 1.2 million individuals, with Gadyen Dlo.

To accomplish the initial distributions, DINEPA is mobilizing local community leaders that will be trained by DSI agents and will distribute Gadyen Dlo in their communities.  This will simultaneously help DINEPA reach their goal of providing safe water and allow DSI to reach its goal of increased coverage of Gadyen Dlo.  The first distributions took place in the northwest department in late August, as shown in the pictures.  In the future, it is expected that these local leaders will also gain opportunities to generate income through ongoing sales of Gadyen Dlo.  We are working on a strategy that focuses on promoting household chlorination through a combination of mass media, community events, and one-on-one household visits.  In the coming months, your support will be targeted toward ensuring that families who obtain Gadyen Dlo through the DINEPA distributions receive messages about the importance of ongoing household water treatment and information about where it is available.