One of the many objectives of Partners with Haiti (PWH) is to help provide support to certain schools and the communities these schools are in, throughout the country of Haiti. As an organization, we are engaged with several schools within Port Au Prince (PAP), as well as multiple schools outside the city. Supporting these schools and their communities can look different, depending on the need. Usually, this involves a feeding program and student sponsorship, however it can also mean working to meet a unique need that the school or community may have.
In the fall of 2022, through a local pastor in a community that we partnered with to the north of PAP, PWH learned about the need for a well. The people living in this community were walking about 30 minutes to reach the closest clean water source. For many Americans, it’s hard to fathom not having easy access to clean water. It can be easy to forget that having clean water available at the turn of a handle is not a luxury that much of the world enjoys. As an organization, PWH set out to determine how we would be able to help meet this need.
PWH quickly learned that there were two different costs for digging a well. If the well was dug by hand, it would be about 40% less than if it was dug using machinery. Complicating the project further was the political instability and deteriorating security in the area. Despite these setbacks, PWH was able to gather some cost estimates and initiate fundraising efforts.
Very quickly, God opened up the door to a major fundraising partner that was able to raise enough money to complete the project. By this point though, the security had
deteriorated significantly in Haiti, and it was beginning to look like completing a project of this magnitude would be challenging to say the least. It was determined that getting equipment in to drill the well would not likely be possible, however the pastor in this community felt confident that we could accomplish the project by hand. A crew was hired and began digging the well by hand.
The estimates were that the well would need to go down about 100 feet before a water source was located, however after 200 feet there was still no water. Amazingly, the crew continued to dig by hand until water was found at 230 feet! What a joy it was to see clean flowing water being pumped out of this hand dug well!
To complete the project, we needed to find a way to extract the water from the depth of the well. As you might imagine, electricity is not reliable in Haiti, so different options were considered. Although the original plan was to source a solar water pump, due to travel restrictions and ongoing security concerns, the team pivoted and sourced a generator and electrical pump. Once installed, the final step is to build a cistern that will store water and provide for easy distribution to the community.
Projects like this are so important because it can provide a real tangible benefit to a large group of people. PWH is well positioned to be able to facilitate projects like this, in part because our organization has partnered with Haitian believers who are in touch with the needs of the communities they serve, and are able to provide boots on the ground oversight. PWH was provided with updates throughout the duration of the project, and we are happy to report that these people, who once walked 30 minutes to retrieve water from a trench, now have a reliable source of clean water within their community.
If you want to partner with PWH to meet the unique needs of our Haitian brothers and sisters, please contact us to find out more information!
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