We also found that the well that the community has been using is very contaminated with bacteria and salt water. (See above) The well is an open surface well so anything on the ground would wash into it including animal waste,as you can see behind the well in the above picture.
They have two closed wells but the two pumps had quit working. When John asked if they had tried at least to make one good pump from the two, they said they had not thought of that. So with a little work they (the Haitians) took the two pumps apart and could repair one. Now they have a lot better water. The well they were using was very high in salinity, while the closed wells still have a slight salt problem, the water is far less salty and drinkable without the contamination.
In all this process, John checked other wells farther up the hill and found they too were getting salty. They also need to build troughs to take spill over water a safe distance away for the animals to drink, thus avoiding contamination.
We shared our findings with the farm cooperative we partner with (they are all Haitians from the island and have been in operation for 25 years; the leaders have all been trained overseas in South America and at Echo in the new and proper farming and fishing techniques). They were quite concerned so they put together an emergency meeting with 16 of the island's leaders including 2 government officials, the head of the organization that oversees World Vision, Concern International, Christian Services and all the other NGOs on the Island of LaGonave. They wanted us to share our findings, which I believe actually affirmed what they suspected already. They asked us what could be done and we answered that only through educating the public and strong conservation methods things could turn around. They are very grateful and want to continue to work with us to help them with this problem.
We will be returning March 10th through 17th, taking several youth from our church. It will be exciting to further this mission, as we continue with education in community development and sanitation.
Pastor Agones has a group of 15 ladies selected to start microbusinesses. The start up for each business is about $250. Once their initial debt has been repaid, more ladies and men can participate. There is a severe lack of jobs. Jobs and training were the two things they need the most, after clean water.
Thank you for all your wonderful support,encouragement and prayers!
Below is a picture of 3 year old Betchwenda Charles who survived the same illness that killed her 11 year old sister, thanks to our help in obtaining medical care. Hallejulia!
Some of the faces of Pastor Agones's school
