Clean Water Haiti Project #38618

Haiti children in desperate need of food and water

by Fondazione Francesca Rava Nph Italia Onlus

Haiti children in desperate need of food and water

Project Report | Aug 27, 2019
Haiti report #2

By Emma Bajardi | project manager

In these days of sultry heat, a glass of water refreshes you.

But what would you do if you didn't have water?

In Haiti it is hot all year round.

For the children of this country, water is survival, people still die from the consequences of hunger and thirst. There is a lack of drinking water, aqueducts and infrastructure, families have to walk for miles to get it by buying it from public fountains or tank trucks.

Sustainable collection and treatment of sewage is practically non-existent throughout the country, and only 24 percent of Haitians have access to a toilet. Low access to clean water and improved sanitation make it easier for certain diseases to spread. After the 2010 earthquake, a cholera epidemic broke out. The average number of cases has decreased since 2010 but increase every year due to heavy rains season.

According to a study conducted by The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, "close to 70% of Haiti population does not have direct access to potable water." Access to clean, fresh water is the main concern in Haiti, contaminated water is also one of the leading causes of childhood illness and the very high infant death rate in Haiti (57 for every 1000 births).

Please help us support Fr Rick and his team. They are providing water trucks every day to the slum in Cite Soleil and many other neighborhoods surrounding Port-au-Prince, as well as to the the NPH St Helène home in Kenscoff, where almost 1000 children between residents and others coming form the community need to drink every day.

NPH children at St Helene in Kenscoff

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May 21, 2019
Haiti Report #1

By Emma Bajardi | Project Manager

"We want to share the story of a young mother, Bertina, who one afternoon came to our NPH St. Damien Pediatric Hospital with her infant daughter Sabina. Fr Rick found her standing in the hallway holding her small child. He immediately sensed that something was wrong. While seemigly asleep, the child was, to his eye, lifeless. Sabina was dead, and this poor mother could not accept she had not arrived in time to get assistance. For two hours she kept rocking her child refusing to give her to the nurses and return to her other children waiting for her at home. With great wailing she finally accepted that death had taken her little girl, and gave Sabina's body to Fr Rick.

This is an extract from Father Rick Frechette's letter to family and friends:

This is the kind of thing that happens when roads are blocked with violence, when hatred rules the streets, when mothers are afraid to risk the roads with their sick children.

We have had a few calmer days with minimal riots, and Bertina finally could come to the hospital with Sabina, today.

When the nurses asked her why she didn't come early in the morning, she said that morning was her only chance in the past two weeks to refill her buckets, barrels and jars with water. She could not miss the chance. She needed water for the children, for drinking and cooking, to wash and clean and bathe. She planned to bring Sabina to the hospital after she could assure water for her family.

This is the kind of thing that happens when you live in absolute poverty, when in the hierarchy of needs, all basic and essential, the needs must compete with each other, since you can only choose one at a time.

It is important for all of us to see clearly the rotten fruit of poverty, and violence.

Its not just about the smashed storefronts, or the burning cars.

Silently and tragically, at the level of a mother and her child, the consequences are deadly."

Thank you for your help in giving Fr Rick and his team the possiblity reach to mothers and children in need in the streets of Port au Prince.

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