Nieuws

In Haiti, new water well causes ripple effect for entire community - 14/09/2008

Two years ago, the village of Nan Sema on the island of La Gonâve, Haiti, had few sources of fresh water other than rain. Villagers — many of them schoolage children — had to walk for more than four hours to find clean water.

Today, some 5,000 people from Nan Sema and surrounding communities are enjoying a clean water system that includes a 200-foot-deep well, a 25,000-gallon cistern, and a drinking fountain funded in part through a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant.

“The Nan Sema kids told us the well would make their lives better because now they could go to school instead of looking for water all day,” says District Governor George Solomon, whose Rotary Club of Riverhead, New York, USA, took on the project as its first water initiative. “Now the drinking fountain has become the kids’ meeting place.”

In addition, without the need to search for water, women can better care for families, and farmers can dedicate more time to their livelihood. Everyone benefits from reduced water-borne disease.

Having learned about the need on the underdeveloped island through his church, Solomon galvanized the support of four clubs in District 7260; the Rotary Club of Saint Michel de L’Attalaye, Haiti; and Service Christian Haiti, a partner organization that provided critical logistical support and sanitation education and technical training for the community.