• One of the greatest needs in Haiti is water. Haiti has a population of eight million, and the World Health Organization and other similar organizations estimate that at least half and as much as 60 percent of the population do not have access to clean water.

• Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere — for the most part, people are living on about a dollar a day. In a study conducted a few years ago, Haiti was also named the “most water-impoverished” country in the world.

• About 80 percent of disease there is water-borne, and that stat affects children most acutely in a country where one in eight children won’t make it to his or her fifth birthday (generally because of a mixture of illness and malnutrition).

• It is often the youngest child in a family who must walk to find water for the family. They walk anywhere from half an hour or an hour to six hours each day, and the water they find may still bring illness to a family.

• This would be a problem in itself, but it’s compounded when you consider that walking for water prevents them the opportunity to attend school. In a country where only 54 percent of children get the chance to go to school, water has even more far-reaching implications.