Medical, Education, Cholera Awareness / Prevention

FROM RELIEF WEB:

CRWRC Response Helps Fight Cholera in Haiti
Source: Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC)
Date: 25 Oct 2010

CRWRC Newsroom | October 25, 2010

A deadly outbreak of cholera in Haiti, in which 259 people are known to have died and over 3,000 people have been affected, steps up the urgency behind the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee's ongoing shelter, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) program in the Leogane communities of Croix des Peres, Luitor, Masson, Macombe, and Flon. The cholera, which originated north of Port-au-Prince, reached the capital over the weekend, and now has spread as far as Leogane, where there are now four confirmed cases.

Willys Geffrard, CRWRC's Project Manager in Haiti, reports that education regarding the outbreak began on Friday, October 22nd, when CRWRC's Disaster Response Team met with their Community-based Organization (CBO) leaders to discuss how to best sensitize families, neighbors, and their communities to the importance of practicing good hygiene habits and using clean water.

Today Jos Joosse, CRWRC's WASH program manager, is going to the villages to advise the communities to use only the water from the deep wells. This water is clean and cannot be contaminated by run-off. There are 18 wells completed in the villages, each over 150 feet deep, with five more planned. In regards to hygiene, 44 latrines have been built, with more to be built in Flon.

On Wednesday morning CRWRC will meet with the water committees in each village to provide further education regarding the wells, how to use the pumps, and the importance of keeping the latrines clean. A subsequent meeting with all of the WASH teams in Leogane will occur this Thursday.

In addition to implementing the WASH program in Leogane, CRWRC placed a Trojan UV Water Filtration system with King's Hospital in Port au Prince earlier this year, and is placing a second Trojan system at Grace Children's Hospital. Both of systems were donated by a group of donors in London, Ontario, so it is with thanks to them that two hospitals have purified water – particularly at this time of a cholera outbreak. Dr Junie Hyacinthe, the Executive Director at King's Hospital, says that she is very happy with CRWRC because, unlike other non-government organizations, "CRWRC maintains contact, checking in to look at the quality of the water, test the water, and to just keep an eye on things." The system at King's Hospital also delivers clean water to an orphanage and a school that are a part of the complex.