Thoughts from HWP’s Project Manager
Water is vital: the human body contains 50% to 60% water and a child’s body contains 75%. A person can live several weeks without food, but he cannot live without water for more than a few days.
However, 880 million people in the world lack access to drinking water.
Consequently, every year more than 1.6 million people, mostly children, die from diseases related to contaminated water.
In the midst of these disasters, Haiti is no exception.
As pointed out by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), some 47% of the estimated 9,000,000 people in Haiti have no access to drinking water.
The cholera epidemic has killed nearly 5,000 people across the country since mid-October 2010, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Public Health and Population. Since the arrival of the rainy season, the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince and several towns across the country are facing serious leaps of cholera.
Everyone knows that “water is life”, but water can also cause death if it is contaminated. The recent outbreak of cholera has painfully reminded us of that.
This critical situation makes us aware that the majority of the Haitian people lack access to clean water.
With 27 wells completed, 25 cisterns built and about 359 biosand filters installed in 9 out of 10 departments in Haiti, HWP is empowering the Haitian people to meet the needs around them.
In the next few months, HWP will drill more wells and build more cisterns in Lagonave, Port-au-Prince, South, Southeast, North and Artibonite.
HWP is not only providing clear water from cisterns and wells, but also safe drinking water from filters. To keep responding to the cholera outbreak, HWP aims to reinforce the water filter program in the communities throughout Haiti.
Each time we distribute filters, build a cistern or drill a well, we know that it has been a partnership between our donors, the HWP, the people of Haiti and God. Today we thank you for your part in this great work and we ask you to join us in praying that God will help the Haitian people to have easy access to clean water.
For each well drilled, cistern built or filter installed HWP saves the lives of more than a thousand Haitians!
–Piard Alcegaire
Merry Christmas!
I’ve been praying about it and have made the decision to donate to the project in lieu of buying Christmas gifts for some of my friends and relatives. The fact is, every single one of us is rich beyond imagining - rich in the love and grace of Christ and living in a comparative lap of luxury.
It does my heart good to know that this year, the money I would spend on people who don’t need a thing will instead be helping some of my brothers and sisters in Christ whose needs are desperate.
I challenge others to do the same, and to continue to keep the attitude that we can do without some of the extras to help others gain the necessities of life.