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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

I'm taking the water challenge


  Access to clean drinking water is
  a major problem in Haiti.  

A recent study by the Pan American Health organization, reports that...

less than half the population has access to safe drinking water.

The vast majority of health problems in Haiti are caused by lack of clean water to drink.  Consuming contaminated water is what caused the recent Cholera outbreak and acute diarrheal disease from bacteria in water is the number-one health problem and contributor to death in children.

You can make a difference
I am taking the water challenge!  That’s right!  I started yesterday, Monday, May 9th.  You can go to this website to find more details.  You can either go one week or two!  I am only doing one week, cause let me tell you going without coffee is hard!  So basically, what you do is drink water instead of coffee, juice, milk, etc and take all the money you would be spending and give it to Haiti!  The water situation in Haiti is absolutely terrible.  It is so sad that they do not have clear water, as Americans we prefer bottled water and our drinking fountain water is amazing compared to drinking water in Haiti.



We are raising money to provide...
water filtration systems.


Each filtration system will produce a chlorine concentrate to add to contaminated water to make it safe to drink, enabling thousands of gallons of contaminated water to be purified.  

Our goal is to be able to purchase and distribute 12 filtration units to the people of Luly, Haiti, a small village outside of Port-Au-Prince.
Access to purified water will:

...better health in the community.  
   
Healthy individuals can help rebuild their communities and are more able to care and provide for their families.  Healthy children are able to attend school and have the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.

...provide jobs through micro-enterprise.  
   
Each system will be provided on loan to men and/or women who show entrepreneurial skills and strong work ethic. These businessmen and women will enter into a repayment agreement whereby they sell the chlorine concentrate in the marketplace and slowly repay the cost of the filtration unit.  These units will provide an affordable way for people in the community to have access to clean drinking water while simultaneously providing sustainable income for the business owner.   
Watch a video to see how they work.

 

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